2 year old hen never molted, lays soft shells

[sakerobot]

One of our hens has been occasionally laying incomplete or soft shelled eggs for a couple months. Today we finally confirmed that it's the hen we've been suspecting.

She's one of our Barred Rocks that were hatched in May 2023. The other hens of her age have all gone through molting.

We know she hasn't molted for two reasons: her head is still bald from last year, while the other two with such haircuts have grown theirs back. She also has short feathers on one wing - from being clipped due to getting to roost in a hemlock tree in the fall of 23.

The soft shelled eggs are not consistent, sometimes the eggs have hard shells, sometimes only the tip of the egg is soft:



We found an extra large egg that had a double yolk the other week which might be hers too:
She was one of the few hens who kept laying eggs daily in the winter.

Could stress be a factor? She lost her rooster and a fellow BR hen to a hawk in January, by which point everyone else had molted or was going through a molt. They're fully netted now, so hawks aren't a problem. We also have a few young roosters, the offspring of the brave father.

She has also always been a very weird chicken, who is known for making a very unusual loud cackling noise that sounds like a forest witch. I don't know if her personality could play any role in her not molting correctly.

Is there a way to encourage her to molt? It's in the 70s here during the day, and the days are long and sunny.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

If the head feathers never grew back in than I would suspect some other bird is plucking her. I see the lose of head feathers when hens want in a nest and another hen doesn't want to leave so they peck and pluck the head.

Some can molt within you even knowing. Generally better layers molt harder, and poor layers molt slowly. The molt is driven by decreasing daylight. You can force a molt, but I wouldn't recommend it as it can be stressful.

 

[StinkyAcres]

What is their diet, including treats, supplements, and how often they are given?

Any signs of respiratory illness (sneezing, wheezing, gaping) or swelling of the joints?

I would get some Calcium Citrate+D3 tablets from Walmart and give her one tablet daily for a week or so and see if that helps at all.

 

[sakerobot]

What is their diet, including treats, supplements, and how often they are given?

Any signs of respiratory illness (sneezing, wheezing, gaping) or swelling of the joints?

I would get some Calcium Citrate+D3 tablets from Walmart and give her one tablet daily for a week or so and see if that helps at all.

They are all on grower/ finisher with oyster shell access, shells are also added to scratch grain. Scratch is given a couple times a day. Kitchen compost materials are given every couple days, and they have about 200sqft of fenced forest area to look for bugs in. The other 13 adult hens are all laying eggs normally, and our 13 week old pullets and cockerels are all healthy.

No wheezing or sneezing, nothing at all is abnormal about her aside from her usual personality. She does seem to have resumed her old habit of loudly vocalizing, something that she had calmed down on when the rooster was around.

We have some calcium nitrate tablets and will give her a try. I'm also wondering if anyone has experienced something similar due to chicken stress.

 

[sakerobot]

If the head feathers never grew back in than I would suspect some other bird is plucking her. I see the lose of head feathers when hens want in a nest and another hen doesn't want to leave so they peck and pluck the head.

Some can molt within you even knowing. Generally better layers molt harder, and poor layers molt slowly. The molt is driven by decreasing daylight. You can force a molt, but I wouldn't recommend it as it can be stressful.

We haven't seen anyone pecking on her head since last year, she usually commands a distance around half of 1.5ft irrespective of other chickens authority. The picking behavior (of which she was originally the most guilty, actually earning the title "Bitch Chicken") seemed to have stopped during the rooster phase and their discipline has been much better since. But the other definite sign that she hasn't molted is her clipped wing, we haven't had to do that since 2022. Her other feathers also don't look super aesthetic.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

We haven't seen anyone pecking on her head since last year, she usually commands a distance around half of 1.5ft irrespective of other chickens authority. The picking behavior (of which she was originally the most guilty, actually earning the title "Bitch Chicken") seemed to have stopped during the rooster phase and their discipline has been much better since. But the other definite sign that she hasn't molted is her clipped wing, we haven't had to do that since 2022. Her other feathers also don't look super aesthetic.

Hopefully she molt this coming fall for you. Do you use extra lighting?

 

[sakerobot]

Hopefully she molt this coming fall for you. Do you use extra lighting?

No, we never use extra lighting.

We are about to double their yard size, if the rain ever stops. That should at least bring some more happiness to the flock.

 

[Just2chickens]

"I'm also wondering if anyone has experienced something similar due to chicken stress."

I have a hen, a green egger with a cream legbar mum, so she has the personality of a leghorn, so realy easily stressed out.. She´s about the same age as yours, and hasn´t molted also, and she´s laying softshelled eggs also, and she screams a lot too because of her ´angst´...
I don´t know if it´s stress (lot´s of out of the normal routine going on) or the early signs of a reproductive issue.. Giving her extra calcium, adding oregano en a little Greek yogurt for immune-boosting.. and hope for the best...

 

[LaFleche]

Could stress be a factor? She lost her rooster and a fellow BR hen to a hawk in January,

Yes, stress could be a factor that can throw her out of balance and start it.

We also have a few young roosters

Adding to the stress. How many of them for how many hens?
I would keep just one or two and choose the ones the hens like best.

She was one of the few hens who kept laying eggs daily in the winter

So she must be exhausted by now with all her calcium deposits depleted.

Scratch is given a couple times a day.

She might just eat the scratch and skip the complete pellets which leaves her with severe nutritional deficiencies and not able to molt.

I would start by deworming her thoroughly and stopping the scratch. Then adding some poultry vitamins to their water and feeding her a daily calcium citrate +vitamin D3 for at least 10 consecutive days.

You can also add some animal protein to her diet like natural greek yoghurt.

 

[Cinnaminute]

I wanted to share that I have a similar situation to yours. I apologize in advance for this being long, but I thought it might be informative.

I got my hen, Marceline, as a chick in February of 2023 so she's also 2 years old. Unlike the rest of my flock, she has technically never had a proper molt after getting her adult feathers in. I say this because by spring of this year, all of her feathers were old, ragged, and brittle. A stark contrast to everyone else's soft, shiny selves. Many of her feathers have started to break off now, leaving weird stubble in "high traction" areas. She also laid mostly all winter, both winters. I don't supplement light, though there were a few nights that got a bit too cold so I had the lights on in the shed while I was moving them all in there. And they took the opportunity to eat and drink before settling back in for bed. This wasn't a regular thing. Usually I left them outside in their coops full of straw.

Our rooster also plucked the back of her head bald last year. He too died in January of this year, like yours, but of unknown causes. None of the hens really cared about him, though. He was a bit of a failed addition to the flock, so sadly everyone was more relaxed with him gone. Poor guy. Regardless, she has seen several deaths. My head hen passed away mysteriously last year in April. And this year, I lost 3 hens and my one rooster. I keep two flocks, technically. 4 out of 5 lost were in her flock. 2 of those deaths she witnessed firsthand and she was privy to the decline of the other 2. So I have no doubt she, and the others, are under a lot of stress.

(To clarify the deaths, besides the rooster, all of them were seemingly reproductive-based but very different at the same time. For instance, my head hen had been laying just fine and had no obvious issues - wasn't eggbound or anything - yet I found her passed away by the nest. Whereas my Polish hen had been dealing with internal laying for a whole year. The catalyst was a freak incident where she laid a double egg with the inner egg being fully formed and the outer egg being soft shelled.)

Marceline started soft shelling around April. I gave her a calcium tablet a day for a week and it changed nothing. I actually watched her lay just a plain egg yolk one day. Then she just stopped laying entirely. A couple weeks later, she actually started growing a few new feathers in. So I guess she went into a slight molt of sorts at the beginning of summer. I figured that explained the weird laying. However, they were very few feathers that came in. The back of her head is still bald. Her belly & rump are still covered in broken feathers. She ended up laying another egg or two afterwards and then completely stopped. I haven't seen a single egg from her since May.

She now seems to have ascites, as her belly is soft and full of fluid. Back in early June she wasn't like this (or at least, wasn't as bad - she's always had a bit of a fat pack in the back as some of them do) so I know she's filled up a bit. Her demeanor also changed over the past couple months. She's still active and will come running for treats. She's not lethargic. She dust bathes, sun bathes, etc. Her comb and wattles are always a bright healthy red. But she's almost a bit... distant now. It's hard to explain. I can't tell if it's just the stress of the summer heat, her position in the flock has changed, or if it's her health. I'm assuming all of the above.

Mine eat Purina Flock Raiser with oyster shell. Treats are regular (summer treats like cold cooked eggs, watermelon, frozen blueberries in ice blocks) but kept to a very low percentage of total food. In fact, Marcy only really eats the eggs and blueberries offered. And those days are more rare since watermelon is cheaper.

Anyway, I hope this is of some help. I've been worried that maybe Marcy has some kind of malabsorption issues or some other underlying issue that is interfering with her ability to process needed nutrients. But all in all, I'm stumped and been looking around for other cases. Do keep us updated on your hen!