Buff Orpington Questions

[BurbCoop]

Our year and a half old Buff Orpington, Big Mama, came out of a hard molt, laid for two days, skipped one day, laid another and then called it quits. It has been 2 months now and still no eggs.

We were afraid she might be egg bound or about to go broody, but she is not showing any signs or symptoms.

She is eating her layer feed, drinks pleanty of water and gets 14 hrs of daylight with help from artificial light in coop.

She has stopped squatting for the most part, almost does a half squat occasionally.

Comb has been pretty red since the molt.

Any reason for concern or is she simply taking a break?

Something else we have noticed with Big Mama is her tail feathers. As soon as she got her adult feathers, they have looked scraggly.

We were hoping the molt would give her nice new tail feathers, but they seemed to grow back in the same condition as before. None of our other hens have tail feathers that look like this.

Any ideas?

 

[LRH97]

If she's happy, healthy, eating, and drinking, I wouldn't worry about it. It could be a variety of reasons as to why she's not laying at the moment. Time of year could be a big factor as well. For some reason, this winter has been really rough as far as egg production for my flock. I had more birds molt hard this time around and most of the girls just shut off. Out of about 45 hens, I was getting 3 eggs a day. Egg numbers are slowly rising now, though so I'd say just give it time. If she was egg bound, she'd be in fairly obvious distress. If she was broody, she would be on the nest pretty much all the time.

As for her tail feathers, it's hard to say. They do look a little skinnier than others I've seen from the pictures, but I don't think they look all too abnormal in my opinion. She may need to preen or could be just how she's made. She's a pretty girl though!

 

[BurbCoop]

Thanks LRH97! Wow, 3 eggs a day out of 45 hens! That is a serious halt in production

Funny you should mention the molt. All of our hens went through a pretty hard molt this year. We have one still in the middle of it with single digit temps. She is not happy.

Here is our other Buff Orp, Tiny, which makes the difference in tail feathers quite obvious when comparing the two.

It almost looks like Big Mama is sitting in something at night, however the feathers are never dirty or wet. She does like to sleep on the lowest roost because of her size. Maybe she is moving to the floor at night and just has bed feathers??

If she's happy, healthy, eating, and drinking, I wouldn't worry about it. It could be a variety of reasons as to why she's not laying at the moment. Time of year could be a big factor as well. For some reason, this winter has been really rough as far as egg production for my flock. I had more birds molt hard this time around and most of the girls just shut off. Out of about 45 hens, I was getting 3 eggs a day. Egg numbers are slowly rising now, though so I'd say just give it time. If she was egg bound, she'd be in fairly obvious distress. If she was broody, she would be on the nest pretty much all the time.

As for her tail feathers, it's hard to say. They do look a little skinnier than others I've seen from the pictures, but I don't think they look all too abnormal in my opinion. She may need to preen or could be just how she's made. She's a pretty girl though!

 

[LRH97]

Thanks LRH97! Wow, 3 eggs a day out of 45 hens! That is a serious halt in production

Funny you should mention the molt. All of our hens went through a pretty hard molt this year. We have one still in the middle of it with single digit temps. She is not happy.

Here is our other Buff Orp, Tiny, which makes the difference in tail feathers quite obvious when comparing the two.


It almost looks like Big Mama is sitting in something at night, however the feathers are never dirty or wet. She does like to sleep on the lowest roost because of her size. Maybe she is moving to the floor at night and just has bed feathers??

It was one of the biggest shortages of eggs I've faced in my poultry "career." It of course came with endless jokes of sending the freeloading girls to KFC .

It's been cold here in Southern Illinois as well. That's more than likely the culprit in the lag, more than likely so in your case as well especially if it's overly cold. In fact, this week is the first good week we've made it above freezing. I'm sure your molting girl is less than enthused!

You definitely can tell a difference between the two in feather shape. I think it's probably just one of those cosmetic flukes. Maybe kind of like that Lady GaGa song "Born This Way" or something like that. They're both beautiful looking girls!