No more eggs - is it normal?

Hello, I recently got a chicken (first time) a few weeks ago. She's stopped laying eggs now for a few days, the last egg she laid was a soft egg. Apart from the no eggs she's behaving perfectly normal. Occasional throw up off water/food after eating or drinking. Pooping fine.

We only have the 1 chicken which we let her roam around the backyard by herself all day.

What could be the issue?

mt1987 said:

Hello, I recently got a chicken (first time) a few weeks ago. She's stopped laying eggs now for a few days, the last egg she laid was a soft egg. Apart from the no eggs she's behaving perfectly normal. Occasional throw up off water/food after eating or drinking. Pooping fine.

We only have the 1 chicken which we let her roam around the backyard by herself all day.

What could be the issue?

Click to expand...

How old is she? Could she be going into a molt? If so, she will resume laying when the molt is over and her feathers have grown back in (You're going into fall now, right?) Or she could be taking a break if she has reached the end of a cycle.

Thank you! I'm really enjoying her (apart from the constant cleaning I have to do haha).

She's quite young, the place we got her from said she hasn't started laying yet. But she laid the first day we got her home. No we're still in full summer, it was 45 degress for us last weekend!

Maybe I'm just overly worried. We have two dogs and a toddler, so maybe she's just adjusting?

mt1987 said:

Hello, I recently got a chicken (first time) a few weeks ago. She's stopped laying eggs now for a few days, the last egg she laid was a soft egg. Apart from the no eggs she's behaving perfectly normal. Occasional throw up off water/food after eating or drinking. Pooping fine.

We only have the 1 chicken which we let her roam around the backyard by herself all day.

What could be the issue?

Click to expand...

Is this when you pick her up with a full crop....or all on her own?

45C?
That's pretty d@mn hot and could be part of the problem.

Yeah I'm thinking the heat could be a problem. We do have her in the house with the aircon on when its too hot.

And the vomiting she does it on her own occasionally, this only happens right after she's eaten or drinking.

We got her from a chicken farm, so she was in a massive flock. Maybe she's missing her friends?

mt1987 said:

Yeah I'm thinking the heat could be a problem. We do have her in the house with the aircon on when its too hot.

And the vomiting she does it on her own occasionally, this only happens right after she's eaten or drinking.

We got her from a chicken farm, so she was in a massive flock. Maybe she's missing her friends?

Click to expand...

Going back and forth from AC to not.... isn't great for them.
I don't attribute human emotions to animals, but they are flock animals and might be better off with another bird or two.
Tho adding birds can be stressful too.

What are you feeding this bird?
Do you know about the crop needing to empty overnight?
Just noticed you are new here......so, Welcome to BYC!

Thank you!

No I did not know. How do you empty out the crop? We're just giving her the feed the farmer sold us. And occasionally mealworms.

Yeah we let her in the house when we're home, she's free to roam where ever she pleases.

mt1987 said:

Thank you!

No I did not know. How do you empty out the crop? We're just giving her the feed the farmer sold us. And occasionally mealworms.

Yeah we let her in the house when we're home, she's free to roam where ever she pleases.

Click to expand...

It's best NOT to try to empty the crop yourself, tho many do.

Her crop should be fairly full at night before roosting, then empty in the morning before she is given any feed.
That's the natural digestion cycle and something to know about and check for when there appears to be an illness.

Tho it's not unusual for them to drink a lot of water when it's hot and sometimes regurgitate some of it,
tho usually they have watery poops then too.....it's how the shed heat from their bodies to keep cool.

Search on 'impacted crop'.....it's a possibility if she free ranges(inside or out) and may have ingested something that won't 'go thru'.

Crisis adverted. Just laid an egg! Maybe it was the heat after all.

What a relief.

Thanks for the all the help though.