I have a Barred Rock who is in her second round of a mystery funk. She has been having problems laying for the past six months. Sometimes she will lay just the white/yolk, sometimes she'll lay a soft shelled egg, sometimes she sits in the box for hours and only poops, and sometimes she just doesn't lay. She was egg bound last April and finally laid a huge soft shell egg with another soft shell egg inside of it. I imagine I haven't gotten a normal egg from her in quite a while. I can't be sure though, because I'm not there to see who's laying when and where. My only indication that she's tried is a wet nest box. I'm not sure how old she is as we got her from a farmer over a year ago. Since we got her, her fluff (below vent) has always been bare. I suspect she pulls her own feathers but I've never seen her do it.
Yesterday, she started to act withdrawn and sat in the nest box for hours and only pooped which resulted in me cleaning out the nest box...again. She is the only one out of six chickens that I have to continually clean up after. She is otherwise healthy, may have just been through a molt as her feather colors have turned from black to a dark brown. I can't catch her (she wasn't tamed by the farmer) to check for bugs but none of the other girls have anything. She got up on the roost early yesterday evening and wouldn't come off for breakfast this morning. I don't want to feed a non productive hen and I don't want her to suffer.
My questions are....what would any of you do? Would you cull her? If so, what is the easiest way?
I live in town, don't have an ax and don't want to let nature take it's course because she looks so miserable. Hubby said he would dispatch of her. I feel bad because he didn't want chickens in the first place and now he has to do the dirty work.
Thanks for any and all advice!
Yesterday, she started to act withdrawn and sat in the nest box for hours and only pooped which resulted in me cleaning out the nest box...again. She is the only one out of six chickens that I have to continually clean up after. She is otherwise healthy, may have just been through a molt as her feather colors have turned from black to a dark brown. I can't catch her (she wasn't tamed by the farmer) to check for bugs but none of the other girls have anything. She got up on the roost early yesterday evening and wouldn't come off for breakfast this morning. I don't want to feed a non productive hen and I don't want her to suffer.
My questions are....what would any of you do? Would you cull her? If so, what is the easiest way?
I live in town, don't have an ax and don't want to let nature take it's course because she looks so miserable. Hubby said he would dispatch of her. I feel bad because he didn't want chickens in the first place and now he has to do the dirty work.
Thanks for any and all advice!
