A New Worry?

[ClareScifi]

My darling 2-year-old Barred Rock has always been a wonderful layer. Has never had a problem.

So today, I thought I heard her egg song (she had been in the process of laying last I had checked on her) and she was out in the run as if she'd laid her egg, eating her mash.

I went to get her egg and saw that the egg in there was not hers. I thought that was strange, but I was glad the other girl had laid, because she'd had trouble getting to her perch last night (it's too high and she's half BO, too large to easily fly that high-- I'm building a new step for her today). I had worried she might have injured herself when she had the trouble getting up to her perch last night, but she seems fine, and her egg was perfect, smaller than some of the jumbo one she lays (she's almost 8 months old), but lovely.

Then I noticed an egg attached to the Barred Rock's behind-- her egg. At first I thought it was stuck inside her, and I panicked. But then I realized I could see at least 2/3 of the egg and I wondered whether it might just be stuck to her feathers. I felt around to see whether some of it was still inside her, and I couldn't tell, and I wondered whether it could be prolapse?

I noticed a few feathers stuck to the outer end of it and I tried to remove them, but they were stuck down as if with glue. She moved around a bit and the egg did fall off her behind, to my relief, and it seemed fine-- not broken, but it did have some gluey type stuff at one end (shell not broken) and some pine shavings and poop stuck to it.

What do you think this could mean? I've never had this problem before. Could she have hurt herself carrying this egg around attached to her behind, walking around with it (causing prolapse or pulling of muscles of some kind)?

Has anyone ever seen this.

She seemed in no discomfort when she was eating the mash with the egg attached to her tail.

Do I need to be on the lookout for future problems. Could the stickiness on one end of the egg indicate some sort of problem/disease she might have? I haven't read about this before. I thought it might be egg drop syndrome, where the egg is stuck and then falls out, but she laid yesterday and hasn't seemingly been egg bound, but I wonder now.

What do you think? All advice will be appreciated. She is such a sweet hen. I wonder whether I should attempt to clean her rear end?

Could the stickiness that was on the egg be caused by mites/worms/parasites?

 

[ClareScifi]

I should add that the stickiness was on the rounded end of the egg, not the pointy end. The rounded end of the egg emerges from the hen first; right?

 

[ClareScifi]

Another thing-- I have to go away on a trip soon and will have the neighbors take care of my chickens. I have a rooster who pecks, so it has to be very easy care while I'm away.

I was planning to leave them the rooster's food for all the chickens to eat, Nutrena All Flock, with supplemental oyster shell free choice on the side for the hens (the rooster doesn't eat it, but he loves the hens' laying mash which has too much calcium in it to be good for him-- that excess calcium could hurt his kidneys).

But now that Esther has had this weird egg-laying scenario described above, I'm worried she might not be getting enough calcium from the rooster food. Every day, after the girls lay their eggs, I let them out of the run so they can eat as much laying mash as they want, without the rooster getting into it, too. He stays in the run, since he pecks people.

But when I'm gone I know the neighbors won't be able to fine-tune the feeding program like I do.

So now I'm thinking maybe I should leave both laying mash and rooster food in the pen for the chickens. I know the rooster will gravitate toward the hens' laying mash instead of the All Flock, since he likes the former better.

But I don't think I should risk the hens maybe not getting enough calcium from the All Flock and the oystershell while I'm away on my trip. They don't really seem to eat much oystershell.

Some say laying mash has far more calcium than they need, that the All Flock probably has enough, but I'm not sure. Don't know whether it's worse to endanger the rooster's life with too much calcium, or to endanger the hens with maybe not enough calcium. If I leave both out I could hope they would eat only what they need, but the rooster is a chowhound, and I know he'll get into the hens' food.

This could shorten his life. But he might view it as having a higher quality life, getting to eat what he finds the tastiest? So hard to know what to do! I could be gone for several weeks.

 

[Den in Penn]

I think she may have secreted to much bloom on that egg. Then she sat to long and it dried attached to her feathers. Anyway its not a calcium problem. Too little and the egg's soft, too much and it will either be a thick shell or little grains of calcium on the shell. I'd say go with you plan of all flock and oyster shell. So the rooster can't pig out on the layer.

 

[ClareScifi]

Really? Good to know, Den in Penn. She did lay some eggs with calcium grains on them a while back, so maybe she's getting too much.

What would cause her to secrete too much bloom?

 

[Den in Penn]

I'm not really sure off hand. Maybe she was a little to hydrated at time, or feeling a little off, or possibly she that's the normal amount and she sat longer than usual on a low humidity day.

 

[poseygrace]

X2, no calcium problem, just sat too long!

 

[ClareScifi]

Why would a hen sit too long? Now that I think about it, the day before I think I saw her still sitting after her egg had been laid and was behind her, as if she didn't realize she had already laid it I wonder why she would do that?

She does like to eat a lot of lettuce. Maybe it's hydrating her too much?

 

[ClareScifi]

Is this a fairly common thing? Have you guys had hens who have sat too long and had their eggs glue to their bottoms?

 

[Den in Penn]

Some times they just sit in the box and watch the world go by. The nest is a comfortable place to sit, for a hen. Never had an egg stick to a hen. How big was the egg? I can't imagine a xlarge or jumbo being stuck without her acting out because of it, or falling right off and maybe pulling out feathers with it