Egg bound?? Laying double yolk eggs and no shell eggs

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evekelly

evekelly

In the Brooder
Feb 6, 2015
42
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My hen, Starbucks, was laying regularly and has laid several double yolk eggs after starting to lay in early September. Since then she has laid several double yolk eggs. However, about a week ago I saw her lay an egg without a shell after she had climbed up to the roost for the night. Now, she isn't laying every day like she was. She hasn't laid for two days and this morning she wouldn't come down from the roost. She is usually my first one up.
Could she be egg bound?? Her abdomen doesn't feel hard or swollen and she is eating. I haven't added additional calcium through oyster shells or anything but will be going to get some today. I haven't performed an exam of her vent to see if she is egg bound but I don't think that is it, because she doesn't seem to have any other symptoms except for lethargy. I will try that if necessary but not exactly sure what to do or what to feel for. How else can I know if she is egg bound? Is there any other reason a hen wouldn't come down from the roost in the morning?

Thanks!
 
How is her walking? Usually, hens that are eggbound walk like a penguin.

So many things can affect egg production. Decreasing daylight, if they run out of water, predators, stress, molting, etc.
 
Last edited:
She is walking fine and seems to be eating fine. She hasn't laid today either. I have been out of the house a lot today and haven't noticed if she has had any bowel movements. They have water but yesterday I was gone all day - it was a very busy day - and one of their water containers was out.
The daylight has made a marked decrease.
What would I look for if she were molting? Do hens molt when they are this young?

Thanks for the answers.
 
evekelly said:
What would I look for if she were molting? Do hens molt when they are this young?
Click to expand...
She should be too young for a molt. I have had some 9 month old pullets molt, but it generally isn't much as far as feather loss. The most noticeable is that it looks like they lost their tail feathers.
 
She might just be resetting. She's still young and hasn't been laying long. What breed is she? My EE hens are infamous for laying double, and sometimes even triple yolk eggs! I occasionally get shelless eggs from them too, but not as much. After a month or two of this, they seem to settle in and lay fairly regularly (about 5 eggs a week) and lay good quality, single yolk eggs. She may just be going through an adjustment while her system is getting "into the groove".
 
Peeps61 said:
She might just be resetting. She's still young and hasn't been laying long. What breed is she? My EE hens are infamous for laying double, and sometimes even triple yolk eggs! I occasionally get shelless eggs from them too, but not as much. After a month or two of this, they seem to settle in and lay fairly regularly (about 5 eggs a week) and lay good quality, single yolk eggs. She may just be going through an adjustment while her system is getting "into the groove".
Click to expand...
Yes, she is an EE! She is acting fine today. I checked her vent yesterday and there was no egg there, so maybe she was feeling under the weather. I also added some calcium in the form of oyster shells. Thank you for pointing this out about this breed.
 
Thanks for the info about molting. The only thing I had heard was that they quit laying and lose some feathers.
 
I'm glad my information helped! My younger birds in my flock are 17 weeks old today, and I actually got two eggs for the first time yesterday from new layers! One is an EE as the egg was a pale powder blue, and the other egg was almost pink - I'm excited that they are coming online to start laying now! My older girls have been keeping us in eggs, but the newbies starting to lay will be fun too!
 

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