Hen not laid egg in almost two days

[waghmg]

We're pretty new to this chicken thing.

We've had our barred rock girls for around 2-3 months. "Lisa" the chick in question started the whole process off and was the 1st who started laying and has been quite a faithful layer, maybe save a day. She skipped yesterday totally and has not laid one yet today (around 3 pm).

She acts just fine. We do move their coop periodically (portable) but it has never affected them before. A couple of days ago had a misshap w/her egg as she laid it near the ramp and it rolled down the ramp and broke (which they ate). She is allowed to free range for a period of time most days and given layer pellets available at all times.

Questions:
1. Is it normal for a hen to skip days laying eggs?
2. Should we have allowed them to eat the broken egg?

Just hope she's not egg bound or something but she acts like she always does, still perky.

Thanks in advance for the advice!

 

[tammye]

do not let them eat a raw egg, they could develope a taste for them. keep an eye on her if she does not lay for another day , check her abdomen for fullness/an egg, if so give her warm baths for 30 minutes and apply some lub like olive oil around her vent to help move the egg.

 

[trilyn]

Ohhh...never let them eat an egg...you'll get a whole mess of egg eaters on your hands and they are next to, if not impossible to break of that habit.

 

[chicmom]

Oh boy...I hope she hasn't layed an egg and they've eaten it.........Sinfully delicious ya know! Keep an eye out.

 

[teach1rusl]

Yes...it's normal that a good laying pullet/hen might slack off at times, especially if she's behaving normally otherwise. You'll find that just about anything can affect egg laying. My girls haven't laid nearly as well the past week or so because our weather had been continuously rainy (not the norm). I wouldn't worry unless it goes on for at least another few days.
And no, I would never encourage eating raw eggs, for the reasons already mentioned...don't want to encourage egg eaters. Anytime I get a glitch egg such as a jello egg or an "oops" egg on the roost overnight, I immediately clean it up.

 

[carrlr]

Depending on when they lay the first egg each "cycle" they will lay one approximately every 26 hours. After several days, they may skip a day or two before starting the "cycle" over. This is perfectly normal. This is just an average as breeds and specific chickens do have different behaviors. I would not let them eat broken eggs. Although I've seen them do this to remove a broken egg, it's not adviseable as they can develope a taste for eggs which is a very bad habit to break.