Help!

[LeslieE]

My 6 month old Bovan Brown, Minerva, was perfectly fine for her walk-about at 10:30 this am. When I went outside for the afternoon walk-about, she wouldn't come out of her run, acted like she was trying to lay, but acted sick... won't even take a treat, but is drinking a little water. According to my book and internet, it looked like egg-bound, but I massaged and even inserted my finger and could feel no egg (she layer her morning egg as usual. None of my chicken rearing friends are available. Any ideas what I should do?

 

[chickensinneed]

Your chicken may be broody. It is a common thing in hens, even with no nest they will be broody. Here is a website that may be able to help. She may not broody but you never know. Also she could be egg bound, is she is keep her in a shallow warm tub of water, it will relax her and may encourage her to lay, make sure she can stand in the tub and won't drown. It has helped my egg bound chickens.

Website

http://animalloversweb.com/article_chicken_broody.html

 

[terryg]

It's always good to be concerned about a hen that isn't eating and who's behavior has changed. It will be obvious if a hen is broody - she'll fluff up her feathers and be in a bad mood and not want to leave the nesting box. But, if you take her out, she'll rattle her feathers and might plop down where you put her. She'll look big and huffy, not sick. More about broodiness here: http://hencam.com/faq/the-broody-hen/
A sick hen will have other symptoms. Start by looking for more clues - the first one being whether she is pooping, the next, is she eating? The best way to do that is to isolate her for a day to see exactly what is going in and out. I've written about that here:
http://hencam.com/faq/diagnosing-a-sick-chicken/
I also have FAQs about egg bound hens, and a general cure-all "spa treatment." Check my other FAQs. I hope she gets back to normal!

 

[charsbird]

I noticed the same thing with one of my 5 month old production reds. I was worried that she was egg bound or something, but she had laid an egg that day already. Late in the day I watched her lay a solf shelled egg!

 

[LeslieE]

Thanks! Within a couple hours, she laid two soft-shelled eggs, one was broken when we found it. She immediately perked up and has been acting normally. So she was egg bound, but I guess I couldn't feel it because they were so soft. Whew! I'm brand new at this and it was my first sick chicken. I appreciate your replies.