- Apr 6, 2013
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One of my seven-year olds does this.
Thought I`d better ask before spring, in case she does this again...
First of all, I`m thinking : please just cut it out!
My birds are companions and precious ones at that.
Last year this little hen and her sister of the same age still laid 3 or 4 eggs per week, which I thought was rather overdoing it - I`d prefer them to take it easy. They don`t have to "pay rent" or "perform" or "produce" in any physical way.
Their very presence is pure joy to me.
But back to Lilly, who has a difficult time passing some of her eggs. She has this problem with about every other egg, the rest come easy.
I find her sitting around dumpy looking, ruffled feathers, closed eyes, not eating and drinking, inactive. The general sick bird look.
I put her inside into a hospital cage with a soft nest. There she sits anywhere from 4-6 hours, immobile. When she finally passes the darn egg, she returns to her normal self.
She gets up, drinks and eats and walks around for awhile, then she lets me know that she wants back outside.
I cannot detect anything physical - no enlarged or hard abdomen, vent looks normal....so what is bugging her [it scares me]? And why the tough time with only half of her eggs?
And the final question which might tick some folks in here off :
Is there a way a hen can be induced to STOP laying eggs? Which is what I want her to do because the price she has to pay for it is too high.
Thought I`d better ask before spring, in case she does this again...
First of all, I`m thinking : please just cut it out!
My birds are companions and precious ones at that.
Last year this little hen and her sister of the same age still laid 3 or 4 eggs per week, which I thought was rather overdoing it - I`d prefer them to take it easy. They don`t have to "pay rent" or "perform" or "produce" in any physical way.
Their very presence is pure joy to me.
But back to Lilly, who has a difficult time passing some of her eggs. She has this problem with about every other egg, the rest come easy.
I find her sitting around dumpy looking, ruffled feathers, closed eyes, not eating and drinking, inactive. The general sick bird look.
I put her inside into a hospital cage with a soft nest. There she sits anywhere from 4-6 hours, immobile. When she finally passes the darn egg, she returns to her normal self.
She gets up, drinks and eats and walks around for awhile, then she lets me know that she wants back outside.
I cannot detect anything physical - no enlarged or hard abdomen, vent looks normal....so what is bugging her [it scares me]? And why the tough time with only half of her eggs?
And the final question which might tick some folks in here off :
Is there a way a hen can be induced to STOP laying eggs? Which is what I want her to do because the price she has to pay for it is too high.
