Hen stopped laying after cleaning

[Plants]

Hi all!

we have a young hen, abou 1 year old that started laying January 2024 and she lays an egg every single day. Until yesterday.

Julieta is more of a ground bird and avoids perches as much as possible. She always sleeps on the ground (meaning she poops and sits on it) and her ass is always full of poop with feathers mashed together. Yesterday early morning we grabbed her and tried to remove some of the poo with a wet warm cloth and a few drops of vinegar, which worked quite good.
We always have dry sand and diatomaceous earth for them to wash, and Julieta does that often.

Is it possible that we annoyed or irritated the hen to stop laying, or is this more likely a coincidence after 6 months of laying? We'll keep an eye on her anyways.

Cheers!!

 

[DobieLover]

Stressors will always make hens stop laying but if you just did her butt fluff cleaning yesterday, that cannot be the issue because any eggs she already had coming down the plumbing would have been laid regardless of that stress.

She may just be slowing down to a more normal pace for her adult body. I wouldn't worry too much about it.

What breed is she? It is atypical for a non-Silkie breed to not want to roost unless she is a low ranking hen.

How high are your roosts?

 

[Plants]

Julieta is a Bleu de Landes and im adding pictures of her and the coop. This is her usual standing position, quite more open than the rest. There has been no egg either, but she is doing business as usual!

It has nothing to do with ranking imo. She is separated from the 2 new hens at night and the other one is broody. She was perching as usual in the coop about 2 months ago. Then one hen died (we had 3) and after a week started sleeping on the nesting box. She did that until one day we left a small coop (no roosting bar)we built for the new ones on the ground, and Julieta went straight into it and now sleeps on the floor.

I noticed she seems to keep her legs more separated than the other hens and when running, you can see the difference on how she stomps around. She rarely jumps and those are low, and also the breeder clipped the bone of one wing.

The coop is about 1 meter above the ground, to be accessed with a stair next to the wall. Maybe the stair is the problem rather than the perch (we raised the bottom of the stair to make it less stiff, we had them climbing ). but the roosting bar is quite low, about 15 cm.

Edit: I don't know really, but with the small flock we had of 3 Lupa was first to bed and to perch, then Julieta and then the other. Maybe she did roost until she didn't have others to follow and then forgot? The survivor hen going broody sure didn't help...

 

[aart]

I noticed she seems to keep her legs more separated than the other hens and when running, you can see the difference on how she stomps around.

Is her abdomen swollen?

 

[Plants]

This morning Julieta laid an egg so less to worry about!

Is her abdomen swollen?

By swollen you mean soft tissue right? I never noticed anything abnormal when grabbing her, I will check it later.

 

[aart]

By swollen you mean soft tissue right? I never noticed anything abnormal when grabbing her, I will check it later.

I mean bloated like a water balloon, below vent and between legs.

 

[Plants]

I just checked and I didn't feel anything there. What is it that I'm checking there, something to worry about?

 

 

[Plants]

After some days since the cleaning, Julieta is starting to look like usual. She is more fluffy than the others, maybe that's why she gets dirtier, but her smell is so bad!!! We also keep an eye to see if there is a vent blockage but she has no issues with that.

Anyways, we'll keep cleaning if it gets too dirty. Thanks!

 

[DustyDivas]

I mean bloated like a water balloon, below vent and between legs.

I have a chicken with this water balloon symptom, do you know what it is please?
Sorry to hijack the post!

 

[loohoo]

I have a chicken with this water balloon symptom, do you know what it is please?
Sorry to hijack the post!

Water belly - fluid builds up in the abdomen.
We just lost a hen to this back in January. She had reproductive issues that caused it - she was her healthiest when she was off lay.