Egg Production Decrease/ Broody Hen?

[Vermont Poultry]

Recently one of our GLWs has gotten a respiratory illness and is currently inside, she had symptoms a few days ago and I decided to bring her inside, but the day after I brought her in (today) we went from getting 12 eggs on our lowest day to now 7 eggs today. Are they stressed because she is missing? We have 16 chickens with a well established pecking order, are they able to stop egg production so quickly? Also I couple days ago our guineas decided to sleep in the chicken coop, and the chickens are pretty scared of them because they have been attacking the chickens, so I removed the male guineas and the female guineas slept with them with little issue, the chickens would attack some of the guinea hens when they got to close (they were raised together but then separated because male guineas got aggressive). When I went in the coop in the morning the guineas were standing in the nest boxes but they didn't lay any eggs because it is winter, but we did still get at least 12 eggs. The next day we still got at least 12 eggs. But after I removed the hen we only got 7, I took her out of the coop around 2-3 pm, an hour or two before sundown, and they way up at 3 am. Can they stop egg laying within a 12-18 hour time period?

Sorry if this post seems unorganized, just tired.

Second question, one of the 8 barred rocks we have is sitting on the clutch of 7 eggs we got this morning and when I went to get them she screeched at me, but when I cupped my hand she stopped cause she thought I had food. I fed her about 2 handfuls of pellets so she was likely sitting on those eggs for a fair amount of time without food because they usually don't eat that many pellets out of my hand unless its cracked corn. We have only ever had one chicken attempt to be broody and only did it for a couple of hours and did not return when I took her off the nest, she is also the one that is sick. Anyway this barred rock is 6 months old and has been laying for a little over a month is it possible for her to be a successful broody?

Final questions, can Golden Sex Links reproduce with a GLW rooster? And since they are new layers and are laying small eggs if I wanted to incubate them could I even?

 

[donrae]

Since you're both missing eggs and have a broody, have you checked under her for your missing eggs?

How are you defining that she's broody? Here, a hen has to spend at least two nights in a row on the nest before I give her eggs to hatch. You saying a hen only sat for a few hours, that's not really broody. that's just dinking around on the nest

If you do have a broody, don't feed her on the nest. She needs to get off the nest at least once a day to eat, drink, poop and hopefully dust bathe. these things are all critical for her continued health while brooding.

Only other thing I can think of...if you have one bird with respiratory symptoms, the rest of your flock may well be effected as well, but in a sub-clinical manner where they're not showing overt symptoms. But, a lot of respiratory issues cause a decrease in egg production. I don't know if you want to consider treating your entire flock, to see if that may help? Or maybe just ride things out for a few days and see how it goes.

 

[Vermont Poultry]

The 7 eggs were the ones under her, I think they are practicing because every time one of them does this they get more defensive and sit for longer. I also heard people in my area say they will start to become broody around early February. She squaked at me quite loudly when I tried picking her up, which they never do even if they are about to lay an egg or just sitting on the nest. There is definitely a difference between just sitting on eggs and attempting broodiness, they will do this low shuffle to adjust the eggs, and wrap their wings around the eggs and make their feathers stick up. They are young (6-7 months old) and are new to laying. Hopefully they decide to go broody, that would be pretty cool.

I am researching internal mites, earlier about 2-3 weeks ago one of the golden comets was acting weird and moving its neck around as if it was choking on something, now we have a hen with breathing issues and weird clicking noise coming from abdomen (sounds like a bone slipping in and out of cartilage, but has a fleshy sound like an air vent getting stuck and clicking back and fourth, hard to explain sorry), supposedly that is one of the symptoms.