I have 3 cream crested legbar hens. A little over a month ago, I found my first egg. About a week later, I noticed one of my hens walking around like a penguin, while holding her tail down. I immediately thought she was eggbound, since I have had another hen do this in the past. I upped her calcium, gave her warm baths, and put Vaseline on her vent. I also felt something hard and round around her vent, tail area which I presumed to be an egg. A few days later, I found another egg but she was still acting the same. I then decided that she must have laid the egg but had another. I then decided that if she could not over come this, I was not going to assist and let nature take its course since she was obviously going to have problems from here on out. This lasted for about 3 weeks until she finally passed. During those weeks, I had given her vitamins, calcium, yogurt, eggs and shells, but she continued to decline. Her comb had also turned a pale pink color and flopped over. Since she passed, I have found a few more eggs so I immediately came to the conclusion that while she was alive, the eggs I did find were not hers, so I obviously have another hen laying. I am not sure how much legbars are supposed to lay, but I am only getting an egg a week which seems on the low side to me. So today, I went outside to feed them and noticed one of the 2 remaining hens, now also has a pale pink comb that is flopped over. What is going on? Am I looking at some type of egg laying illness, or something else. I have a copper maran hen in the same pen who appears to look and act fine, but she also only lays about an egg a week which seems a little on the low side. All of these hens are 8-9 months old. The maran started laying about 2 months ago. I feed them a mixture of purina layer crumbles and purina plus omega feed. They also have unlimited access to fresh water since their water is piped in off the main line. They were given ivermectin back in Februrary for worms/lice preventative treatment, yet I have not seen any worms or lice.
