- Mar 30, 2011
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It appears that my worst nightmare has come true.
My hen, who is a little over 2, a Barred Rock is large and sleeps on a shelf in the coop that is too high for her to jump off of. Or so I thought. Each morning I get up early and help her down, after the others have flown off the shelf. I am waiting for my handyman to return from vacation on Monday. He was going to remove the step I had put in to make it easier for them to get up and down from the shelf-- they only used it to get up, and it was getting down, getting bumblefoot, that had me worried.
But for some reason my large girl decided to try her wings this morning, and she landed on her breast. I didn't think she had broken an egg-- she got right up and seemed fine, ate well.
But just now I went into the run, and instead of finding her egg she laid in the nest box of the coop, it was in the middle of the run. And one side was cracked. Not badly, no yolk running out, but maybe a very tiny piece of shell missing.
So now I'm thinking she will probably get an infection if the shell bit is still in her and die; right? And could the egg have scratched her coming out, with the broken side? Is there anything I can do?
My hen, who is a little over 2, a Barred Rock is large and sleeps on a shelf in the coop that is too high for her to jump off of. Or so I thought. Each morning I get up early and help her down, after the others have flown off the shelf. I am waiting for my handyman to return from vacation on Monday. He was going to remove the step I had put in to make it easier for them to get up and down from the shelf-- they only used it to get up, and it was getting down, getting bumblefoot, that had me worried.
But for some reason my large girl decided to try her wings this morning, and she landed on her breast. I didn't think she had broken an egg-- she got right up and seemed fine, ate well.
But just now I went into the run, and instead of finding her egg she laid in the nest box of the coop, it was in the middle of the run. And one side was cracked. Not badly, no yolk running out, but maybe a very tiny piece of shell missing.
So now I'm thinking she will probably get an infection if the shell bit is still in her and die; right? And could the egg have scratched her coming out, with the broken side? Is there anything I can do?