- Sep 5, 2012
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Hey Mygirls, I did some checking around. I don't have experience w/ old hens (the country people I knew growing up turned them into soup), and we only started w/ our own chickens last year.
Try this: http://hencam.com/henblog/2010/10/eggs-from-old-hens/
There are other sites of people talking about old hen eggs. Yours doesn't seem the same - they talk about weak or leathery shells, but same size, normal yolks, and whites that are grainy if poached (also soapy or bubbly whites, I don't see that in yours - yours just looks a tad cloudy with a weak yolk). Could be your hen is old and failing - or it could just be stressed and will lay normally when the stress is gone.
It's cold now in Colorado. low light, no fresh grass in her diet, and so on (plus foxes). Two and a half seems too young for her to be about to quit - that's more age 4 - unless what I've read is all wrong. That said, I have read that chickens are born with x eggs (the cells that give rise to eggs) in their ovaries and do run out. A Leghorn laying 280 eggs a year will run out way faster than a regular heritage bird laying 160 or w/e.
Was your chicken a prolific layer, like 5-6 a week? If so, she may be running out. If not - stress, low light, diet, illness - check her behavior. See if she's sick or stressed. This is a problem we'll have to face one day: can we slaughter and eat a hen we've named and treated like a semi-pet? We're too wimpy to do that, I'm afraid! If one day we're in the country with a bigger flock (and we don't name all the birds), who knows?
You feed treats and scraps sometimes, right? They say no onions, no citrus - um - no avocado - um ... other stuff are no noes too. Has she eaten something on the bad-food list?
By the way, thanks folks for putting up with my long tomes. I guess I have a lot on my mind: this issue does bug me. Ya'll are very nice to tolerate me. My son's principal says my emails are too long - and then turns around and accuses me of bad motives or wonders if I truly grasp this or that - and I say: "That's WHY I WROTE A LONG EMAIL - to let you know I'm not going that way, that I get all that - that we gotta solve the problem in a way that may be HARD and require WORK, cuz what you're doing now ISN'T WORKING!" They love me at his school.
At least he's a wonderful boy and well liked by everyone there (and our issues are getting solved - he's doing great, thank God)!
Try this: http://hencam.com/henblog/2010/10/eggs-from-old-hens/
There are other sites of people talking about old hen eggs. Yours doesn't seem the same - they talk about weak or leathery shells, but same size, normal yolks, and whites that are grainy if poached (also soapy or bubbly whites, I don't see that in yours - yours just looks a tad cloudy with a weak yolk). Could be your hen is old and failing - or it could just be stressed and will lay normally when the stress is gone.
It's cold now in Colorado. low light, no fresh grass in her diet, and so on (plus foxes). Two and a half seems too young for her to be about to quit - that's more age 4 - unless what I've read is all wrong. That said, I have read that chickens are born with x eggs (the cells that give rise to eggs) in their ovaries and do run out. A Leghorn laying 280 eggs a year will run out way faster than a regular heritage bird laying 160 or w/e.
Was your chicken a prolific layer, like 5-6 a week? If so, she may be running out. If not - stress, low light, diet, illness - check her behavior. See if she's sick or stressed. This is a problem we'll have to face one day: can we slaughter and eat a hen we've named and treated like a semi-pet? We're too wimpy to do that, I'm afraid! If one day we're in the country with a bigger flock (and we don't name all the birds), who knows?
You feed treats and scraps sometimes, right? They say no onions, no citrus - um - no avocado - um ... other stuff are no noes too. Has she eaten something on the bad-food list?
By the way, thanks folks for putting up with my long tomes. I guess I have a lot on my mind: this issue does bug me. Ya'll are very nice to tolerate me. My son's principal says my emails are too long - and then turns around and accuses me of bad motives or wonders if I truly grasp this or that - and I say: "That's WHY I WROTE A LONG EMAIL - to let you know I'm not going that way, that I get all that - that we gotta solve the problem in a way that may be HARD and require WORK, cuz what you're doing now ISN'T WORKING!" They love me at his school.
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