Egg Laying From Roost Bar

[Julia62]

Yes, the Golden Comet (Ginger) is the two year old. I have not noticed molting in her. She is very active, her head is loosing feathers though. More red skin showing than before. She is one of our original chickens. We got her at 12 weeks old in summer of 2014. The other three I raised from chicks last year. I hope she is not sick. I thought maybe she is going through Chicken-O-Pause. Seemed too early to be slowing down though. I had all of their poop tested a couple months ago for worms/parasites and they were clean.

 

[aart]

Yes, the Golden Comet (Ginger) is the two year old. I have not noticed molting in her. She is very active, her head is loosing feathers though. More red skin showing than before. She is one of our original chickens. We got her at 12 weeks old in summer of 2014. The other three I raised from chicks last year. I hope she is not sick. I thought maybe she is going through Chicken-O-Pause. Seemed too early to be slowing down though. I had all of their poop tested a couple months ago for worms/parasites and they were clean.

Golden comets are a high production hybrid cross.....
.....they lay great guns for a 2-3 years then can slow or stop abruptly.
She may be going thru a soft molt...or may be coming to the end of her productivity.
Only time will tell, as long as she's eating/drinking/pooping/moving normally not much you can do but wait and see.

 

[Julia62]

Golden comets are a high production hybrid cross.....
.....they lay great guns for a 2-3 years then can slow or stop abruptly.
She may be going thru a soft molt...or may be coming to the end of her productivity.
Only time will tell, as long as she's eating/drinking/pooping/moving normally not much you can do but wait and see.

Thanks for the feedback. She is our most social bird and still is. We just love her. She follows me around the yard when I'm cleaning up poop, comes in the coop to mess up everything I just cleaned and neatly leveled out. Always first to run up to me when I come out the door. She is still doing all that. So, we will just wait and see. Thanks again!

 

[skullgrrrl]

Update:

Since I first posted in April nothing has changed. She is not laying a lot and when she does the eggs are very thin shelled (not soft shelled) and are often broken as she lays them from the height of the roost bar (or today, out in the yard). I sometimes find an egg broken on the coop floor and then see her later, in the nest box, as though she hasn't laid yet. Its as though she isn't prepared for when they leave her body because I am finding them in odd places. I have 8 nest boxes for 6 hens that are laying at the moment.

She has ample access to high protein food and lots of greens, yoghurt, cottage cheese, crushed egg shells and oyster shells. None of my other hens have this issue and she didn't when she first started laying. She seems healthy in every other way.

Any other suggestions?

 

[aart]

Update:

Since I first posted in April nothing has changed. She is not laying a lot and when she does the eggs are very thin shelled (not soft shelled) and are often broken as she lays them from the height of the roost bar (or today, out in the yard). I sometimes find an egg broken on the coop floor and then see her later, in the nest box, as though she hasn't laid yet. Its as though she isn't prepared for when they leave her body because I am finding them in odd places. I have 8 nest boxes for 6 hens that are laying at the moment.

She has ample access to high protein food and lots of greens, yoghurt, cottage cheese, crushed egg shells and oyster shells. None of my other hens have this issue and she didn't when she first started laying. She seems healthy in every other way.

Any other suggestions?

She may just be a 'lemon'....I have a couple that lay funky eggs most the time.
There are many things that could be wrong internally, even slightly, that sometimes there is no obvious issue.... or solution.

Read back and didn't see it mentioned:
What breed she is?
Where did you get her?
Did you get her as a chick?
How many birds total?
Size of coop and run(feet by feet)?

 

[skullgrrrl]

To answer your questions:


What breed she is? Silver Laced Polish -Easter Egger x

Where did you get her?
Did you get her as a chick? I hatched her from an egg (not from my birds)

How many birds total? I usually have @ 20 adults (mostly standards, some bantams, 1 roo)

Size of coop and run(feet by feet)? Coop is 65 sq ft, lots of roost bars, 8 nestboxes, 900 sq ft run., fruit trees, lots of shade and places to hang out. Very few issues with predators.

They are a very harmonious flock, no bullying, though she is lower in the pecking order. Lots of fresh greens, layer pellets.

If she had started out laying thin shelled or soft eggs I might have thought there was an inherent issue, but she laid great eggs for the first couple of months (in the nest box). Once they started being thin shelled she started laying in the pen, on the coop floor or from the roost bar.

 

[aart]

Maybe a bit crowded in coop, can make it rough on a low bird.

Layer feed is usually minimal in protein(16%), 'lots of greens' can dilute that.
Do you have multiple feed stations? She may be being pushed off feed?

As far as 'something off inside'.....it can develop over time, so not necessarily present when first laying.

 

[skullgrrrl]

They are outside most of the day so not too crowded - lots of roost bar space. Multiple feed and water stations. Lots of calcium. Right now I have a bunch of chicks so everyone is on higher protein crumble as they are all eating the same feed.

I'm thinking there is an 'internal issue'. I had one EE pullet that didn't start laying till she was almost 11 months old and soon thereafter developed a serious prolapsed vent and I had to euthanize her. Odd that she didn't start laying for so long (her sister started @5 months earlier), so I'm assuming there was an 'issue' there as well.

 

[scott6150]

I've got a 7 month old that started laying during the night on the roost bar about 2 weeks ago. Driving me nuts. She was laying in the nest boxes quite awhile. I've thought about setting a light timer to come on before dawn. Thoughts?

 

[aart]

I've got a 7 month old that started laying during the night on the roost bar about 2 weeks ago. Driving me nuts. She was laying in the nest boxes quite awhile. I've thought about setting a light timer to come on before dawn. Thoughts?

How old is she?
How long has she been laying?
She was laying in nests before 2 weeks ago?
Are eggs hard shelled?
A light is not going to change that I don't think.
Has something changed in the coop....new birds, other birds started laying, change in coop structure, anything?
Pecking order may have changed.....keeping her out of the nests maybe.