Help! Girl singing the egg song and trying to lay an egg for 30+ minutes

[nuchickontheblock]

Usually my 2 comet hens will take only a few minutes of "singing" to lay an egg; and they each lay an egg every single day, without taking a day off for the past 6 weeks. This morning I have one who keep bocking and then after about 10 minutes takes a few ragged breaths and starts again. Do we have a problem? I have not gone into the coop as I don't want to interrupt her process, but I think she is having difficulty.
Advise quickly please!

 

[ccrow]

I'm sorry, I don't have any advice; I wouldn't know anything to do if this happened with one of mine. I guess I would just cross my fingers and hope she just has an extra-large egg that is more work than usual... good luck.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Sounds like twins to me. I'm sure it's a double yolk jumbo.

Let the process go, if she's still having problems hours from now you could bring her into your bathroom with shower on hot to steam the entire room. This aids in releasing egg bound birds. Troubled labor is not egg bound so just wait it out.

 

[nuchickontheblock]

Oh No -- I went in to do my chicken chores and one of my girls was sitting on all the eggs, singing away. Got out of the nest box for a special treat for about 10 seconds and then even though I took the eggs away, she hopped right back into the box and made that "here little chicks I found a treat for you" cluck -- I hope she isn't going broody. . .

I hate when they get broody!

 

[mrz hen]

My hens do this sometimes and what iv realized is their eggs are bigger then what they normally lay.
Could it be that?

 

[mrz hen]

By the way what does broody mean?

 

[LDzuray]

Broody is when they decide they want to be mamas and don't want to leave the nesting boxes because they want to try and hatch a clutch of eggs. They don't always stick it out but they will stop laying when they're broody so many people try to break them of it by blocking off the nesting boxes or isolating them over hardware cloth among other things to get them to lay again.

 

[nuchickontheblock]

So. . . . My girl wasn't broody. She just laid a second egg within 1 hour. Both were her normal size. I wasn't sure that they could do that. Hopefully her little body will take a break tomorrow. She seemed normal the rest of the day.