Delaware won't lay

Nardo

Free Ranging
5 Years
Sep 26, 2014
746
1,803
547
North Texas
My Coop
My Coop
Me 3 year old Delaware has laid two eggs this entire year and one of those was a fairy egg.
1. She doesn't have mites (but I dusted anyway)
2. She's not broody
3. She's not wormy (but I wormed anyway)
4. She's with 4 other hens and they are continually laying
5. She's mid way in the pecking order
6. She doesn't have any visible injuries
7. She hasn't suffered any trauma or stress
8. Yes, it's hot but so am I and so are the other chickens
9. She isn't egg bound
10. She used to lay very round sort of pinkish tan eggs (I know which ones are hers)
11. She eats and drinks and poops normally
12. She is a little mean to the younger ones
13. BIG ONE: She gets in the nest when other hens lay and crowds them but she doesn't lay

Anyone have an idea? Is she sick?
 
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She's trying to tell you that she needs a very warm bath with veggies, and maybe some noodles or rice. ;) I had Delawares and they were not the best egg layers. At 3 years old, if a hatchery bird, she may be passed HER laying days.
 
Why are you so certain that she's not laying at all?
Do all your birds lay egg so unique that it's obvious hers is missing?
 
Why are you so certain that she's not laying at all?
Do all your birds lay egg so unique that it's obvious hers is missing?
I don't have that many (5 hens). Welsummer's are dark and speckled. Australorpe is sort of long and slender and plain tan. Easter egger is sort of greenish brown. White rock is biggest and brown. She's (Delaware) the only one that lays round and pink more than tan. Plus, I see her in the nest and hear the bawkbawkbawk. I go look and there's never an egg. I thought maybe she was eating them so I look for shells, left over yolk - any clue about what may be happening. I'm just stumped. I even thought she was broody and just sitting and taking up room so I would go move her. She doesn't growl or puff up or even get annoyed. She just gets down and goes back out into the run and eats or drinks or bullies the younger ones. She appears perfectly healthy but she won't lay. But she does get in the nest and I hear the egg song. ???
I leave before dark and I am able to go home for lunch between 12:00-12:45ish and I get off @ 3 so there is not very much time between my visits to the coop.
We are outside virtually all day on the weekends and because she is puzzling me, and because it's hot and I have to put water and take precautions because of the heat, I go many times into the run and coop to take a look. She's acting like she is laying but she's not laying.
 
Is it possible for a hen to lay a certain size, shape and color egg and then change her style?
Probably not...your post above say all eggs are unique enough.
Some hens go wonky...could be an ovary malfunction.
I have had a few that sat in nests, sung the song, but didn't lay...not long term but still. Some things just cannot be explained.
 
Probably not...your post above say all eggs are unique enough.
Some hens go wonky...could be an ovary malfunction.
I have had a few that sat in nests, sung the song, but didn't lay...not long term but still. Some things just cannot be explained.
Okie dokie. I just don't want her to be sick and I do nothing. I looked just now when I went home for lunch, at her pelvic points and vent, but IDK really what to look for. I didn't compare her contours to another hen but I will look at everyone this afternoon and see if there are differences. Thanks for responding to my many posts. To be brutally honest, she is mean to the others and she won't lay and the scales are tipping towards culling her. Her only redeeming quality is that she is pretty, but she's about to wear on my last nerve.
 
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