Hens sitting in nest box for a couple of hours, but not laying

[aart]

Do you free range?
They could have a hidden nest.

 

[Morrigan]

Do you free range?
They could have a hidden nest.

Not entirely. They have a very large yard, but it is fenced in. There are lots of bushes in there, however, and I actually spent some time crawling around under them hoping to find a cache. I did find one random egg dropped the middle of a dust bathing area, but I'm pretty sure by its color that it's not by one of the 2 "sitting" hens. I might check the yard again tomorrow, tho, some of the bushes are pretty dense.

 

[aart]

Quote: Or lock them in the coop for the day.

 

[deacons]

I have a 2.5 year old Golden Comet doing the same thing, but with her I'm 90% sure it's a reproductive tract issue. She was doing really poorly a couple of months ago and I didn't think she'd make it, though after a course of vet-prescribed antiobiotics she did perk up some (here's a thread about her). She's definitely passed some shell-less and lash eggs, but has never seemed as sick as she did in the beginning of her issues.

It's been 2-3 weeks since I've found any odd eggs, but every day she does go sit on the nest for a couple of hours and then come out without actually laying. I worry she's laying internally- or will in the future if she's not now- but she has no bloat, penguin stance, swelling, feather loss, or any of the other symptoms I've read about. Since my hens are pets, the best case scenario is that her body actually has stopped laying and she'll just continue on as a pet without any breakfast-related benefits But based on my research I know that's unlikely and at some point internal laying will catch up with her- I just hope she has a lot of happy time left with us.

Good luck getting to the bottom of what's going on with your girls!

 

[aart]

I have a 2.5 year old Golden Comet doing the same thing, but with her I'm 90% sure it's a reproductive tract issue. She was doing really poorly a couple of months ago and I didn't think she'd make it, though after a course of vet-prescribed antiobiotics she did perk up some (here's a thread about her). She's definitely passed some shell-less and lash eggs, but has never seemed as sick as she did in the beginning of her issues.

It's been 2-3 weeks since I've found any odd eggs, but every day she does go sit on the nest for a couple of hours and then come out without actually laying. I worry she's laying internally- or will in the future if she's not now- but she has no bloat, penguin stance, swelling, feather loss, or any of the other symptoms I've read about. Since my hens are pets, the best case scenario is that her body actually has stopped laying and she'll just continue on as a pet without any breakfast-related benefits But based on my research I know that's unlikely and at some point internal laying will catch up with her- I just hope she has a lot of happy time left with us.

Good luck getting to the bottom of what's going on with your girls!

A shell-less egg and a lash egg are two very different things.
Shell-less is just an incomplete egg rushed thru often because of stress.
Lash egg are usually chunks of pus and/or infected tissue sloughing off internally and being expelled.
Hopefully the antibiotics cleared the infection.

 

[deacons]

A shell-less egg and a lash egg are two very different things.
Shell-less is just an incomplete egg rushed thru often because of stress.
Lash egg are usually chunks of pus and/or infected tissue sloughing off internally and being expelled.
Hopefully the antibiotics cleared the infection.

Right- she was giving me both. Unfortunately the lash eggs came after the antibiotics, which is obviously not a good sign. But that was roughly 3 weeks ago and, like the OP's hen, these days she is sitting on the nest not laying, but also not passing any other unusual or worrisome eggs. But I recognize that it's possible (and even likely) that will change in the future.

Anyway, don't mean to hijack the OP's thread, as I don't think she's seeing any bad eggs, just not seeing any eggs at all and was wondering what's going on if they sit but don't lay.

 

[Morrigan]

deacons - thanks for the thread "hijack." Your comments on internal laying are another thing I need to think about for my girls. I'm am going to keep a very close watch for changes in gait or swelling. On the optimistic side, I found a thread on internal laying whose chicken had stopped laying for several months (so the poster believed the chicken was laying internally), but then the chicken suddenly started up laying again. I'm still holding out hope.

 

[Sutremaine]

They are 2 of the best looking birds in my entire flock in terms of full, glossy feathers.

Hmm. I wonder if they're maturing any yolks at all, if they're putting that much effort into their feathers? Do you get dark, orangey yolks? If so, is there any significant difference between leg colour of those two birds and the leg colour of the layers?

 

[Morrigan]

Hmm. I wonder if they're maturing any yolks at all, if they're putting that much effort into their feathers? Do you get dark, orangey yolks? If so, is there any significant difference between leg colour of those two birds and the leg colour of the layers?

I checked them out again today. No significant difference in leg color. I have on occasion gotten some dark, orangey yolks that are rather firm in texture. It's been a while since I have seen one, and I don't know who was laying them.

The Buff has a nice red, healthy looking comb. Both are walking normally and seem alert and interested in food.

 

[Morrigan]

I thought I'd give an update as to the two hens that were the subject of my original post.

One of them was egg bound. About a month after my last post I noticed she was sleeping in the next box, and not mixing with the other chickens as much. We decided to cull her and our autopsy found the poor girl had been internally laying, All her fluffy feathers made it hard to see. Earlier in the summer, we had twice given her the warm bath treatment and after the first treatment she did start laying again, but the second time obviously did not do the trick.

The second hen is just fine. As winter set in, she stopped sitting in the nest boxes. This month, she was back to sitting for long stretches, and I worried at first, but a few days ago, she began laying again. She still spends several hours in nest box and doesn't always leave an egg, but she is definitely laying. She is not a true broody, but just likes hanging out there during laying season, I guess.

My take away is that the signs between a normal, but quirky, chicken and one that truly has a problem are fairly subtle. I'm always reluctant to cull, but sometimes it has to be done.