egg bound question!

[yippeechickens]

hey everyone - i have a question about my rhode island red. in the past few months there have been two instances where she has been egg bound and when i run inside to crush up a tums (for calcium), by the time i come back out she has passed the egg and is back to normal. after both egg bound situations she's passed another egg that doesn't a shell an hour or two after. she lays really big eggs for being a smaller hen and i'm wondering if there's anything i can do to help her. my hens are free range and they have a large bowl of oyster shell that is available to them at all times (especially because it's winter), and i also give them a few handfuls of dried soldier fly worms every day. i don't know if theres any vitamins or something i can give to help her? any insight is much appreciated thank you!

 

[yippeechickens]

hey everyone - i have a question about my rhode island red. in the past few months there have been two instances where she has been egg bound and when i run inside to crush up a tums (for calcium), by the time i come back out she has passed the egg and is back to normal. after both egg bound situations she's passed another egg that doesn't a shell an hour or two after. she lays really big eggs for being a smaller hen and i'm wondering if there's anything i can do to help her. my hens are free range and they have a large bowl of oyster shell that is available to them at all times (especially because it's winter), and i also give them a few handfuls of dried soldier fly worms every day. i don't know if theres any vitamins or something i can give to help her? any insight is much appreciated thank you!

just want to add she is also about 2 years old and gets a mix scratch and feed - she also had a weird molting problem where she was not growing her feathers back for a few months but she's fully fluffy now!

 

[rosemarythyme]

If she's egg bound she wouldn't be laying those eggs. It sounds like the size of the eggs is the issue but not much you can do about it, as her genetics dictate egg size for the most part.

What I would do is cut back on treats - a lot. You mention giving both BSFL as well as scratch and both of those are adding fat to her diet. A fatter hen might have a harder time laying than a fit one due to fat deposits constricting her organs or oviduct so you definitely want to minimize any treats to keep her at a moderate weight. Her feed and natural forage should be the main part of her diet, any additional treats like scratch should be 10% or less of her diet.