Ever since the shell-less egg.....

[baucomgop]

Hi Folks:

Ever since I posted that my white hen laid a shell- less egg under a bush, she has not laid an egg. Is it possible the egg is being eaten with absolutely no trace of the egg left (not even a touch of yolk or shell)?

Its been about a week now maybe a bit more- what would cause a 1 year old hen to stop laying an egg a day? She is otherwise fine, behavior has not changed and she is eating and drinking and running the yard as happy as you please. I know its her egg thats missing because she alays lays a larger egg, I am still getting a amaler egg from m brown one.


Thanks in advance for any words of wisdom!

L. B
Annapolis, MD

 

[math ace]

Are they free ranging? Is it possible she has found a "New" bush to lay the eggs under ? ?

 

[Fergie]

I would keep an eye on her. If she layed one soft shelled (or no shelled) egg, she could be laying internally, which can make them real sick! Make sure she's getting enough calcium and Vitamin D. They need that for formation of shells.

 

[baucomgop]

We have looked around and found no evidence of her laying elsewhere- they go in and get closed up at night and had been laying their eggs in the nest box before being let out in the morning.

Laying eggs internally? what hould I look for? she has access to oyster shell all the time. what else should I be giving her? She always laid a large egg every day.

 

[Fergie]

Sometimes if they aren't forming shells appropriately (for whatever reason), they'll lay the soft or no shell egg. And other times chickens just pass the yolk from their oviduct to their abdomen and they "pile up" in there, which can cause egg yolk peritonitis. It's actually an infection of the abdominal cavity. We had this last summer with our flock, and lost 3 out of 4 hens. The vet examined two of them and could feel underneath their tummies were kind of tight because their abdomens were full of egg yolks that had become infected. She actually drained the yucky stuff from them, which helped for awhile. She suspected our feed was bad, old, or whatever, for so many of our hens to get it within weeks of each other. So pay attention to how you store your feed and make sure the place you are buying it from is paying attention to shelf life. Because the vitamins added to feed diminish over time. Our vet said to pay attention to young hens who aren't forming eggs properly. Something's out of whack. We didn't know our hens were sick because they looked okay, but we shouldn't realized it, because their laying had stopped for three of them. Then one started acting sick, (inactive, sleeping a lot, fluffed up, etc.) then two more... the three of them eventually died. I guess egg yolk peritonitis is quite common in hens over two years of age.

Good luck! I'm sure your hen will start laying any day now...