Hen was a good layer and suddenly stopped?

[Averyloveschickens]

Hello! So I have a 23 week old hen (she is a smokey pearl) and she was a really good layer, she would lay for me every day.

For the last week and a half she hasn't laid any eggs at all. The weather has been cooler here so I don't think it would be the heat, and she's too young to molt, as this is her firstwinter/fall ans she hasn't been losing any feathers. She's not eggbound and she's acting fine too, eating and drinking well, etc.

Every day she goes in the coop and will sit in the nesting box, but then she comes out and there is no egg in the box. She religiously goes to sit in the box every single day, but no eggs. We are kind of worried about her and would appreciate any kind of help! Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas on what could be wrong/what we could do?

Thank you for reading!

 

[aart]

Not sure there's anything you can do but wait and see.
I assume you've inspected her vent and overall health?

 

[Mrs. K]

If a bird is acting healthy, eating, drinking and bright eyed and active. There is nothing you can address.

Are you positive that she does not have a secret nest? That is always the issue for me, if there is a sudden decrease in egg production. And they can be sneaky, sometimes hiding it in plain sight.

And really at 23 weeks, she cannot have been laying long? There are a lot of start ups, and stops, to start up again, for the first 2-3 months of laying.

Mrs K

 

[Averyloveschickens]

Not sure there's anything you can do but wait and see.
I assume you've inspected her vent and overall health?

Yes, and she seems perfectly happy and healthy, she's been eating well ans playing with the flock like normal so I don't think she's sick or anything

 

[Averyloveschickens]

She started laying at 16 weeks, which seemed early to me.
Today, she was not acting normally - just standing around, not coming when I went out. We decided to bring her into the garage to isolate and keep an eye on her. That's when we noticed she was not eating or drinking and laying down a lot. Used a dropper to give her some hydration. Every hour or so we checked on her. I noticed clear looking poop and upon further inspection I think it was egg white? As I was observing her, she suddenly laid this strange looking egg/white combo. Any ideas on what this is or what might have caused it? (It has pine shavings on it, sorry)

 

[rosemarythyme]

Do you still have the egg and "stuff"? I want to say the white stuff is a membrane from what would've been a second egg (which would also contribute to the top egg being soft shelled it looks like?) but you'd need to dissect it to be sure.

 

[Averyloveschickens]

Do you still have the egg and "stuff"? I want to say the white stuff is a membrane from what would've been a second egg (which would also contribute to the top egg being soft shelled it looks like?) but you'd need to dissect it to

Yes, there was a whole yolk and hen some really runny yolk inside the "egg" part.

 

[Averyloveschickens]

Also she is still acting off today. When she poops, there is a lot of what I would call egg white coming out. She has been eating and drinking a bit, so that makes me feel better. Red comb and wattles still.
I just don't know if I should worry about her still acting off or chalk it up to the "trauma" of passing that mess.

 

[Averyloveschickens]

Do you still have the egg and "stuff"? I want to say the white stuff is a membrane from what would've been a second egg (which would also contribute to the top egg being soft shelled it looks like?) but you'd need to dissect it to

If a bird is acting healthy, eating, drinking and bright eyed and active. There is nothing you can address.

Are you positive that she does not have a secret nest? That is always the issue for me, if there is a sudden decrease in egg production. And they can be sneaky, sometimes hiding it in plain sight.

And really at 23 weeks, she cannot have been laying long? There are a lot of start ups, and stops, to start up again, for the first 2-3 months of laying.

Mrs K

Definitely no secret nest. She has one box that she lays in only and there are not many places she can hide a secret.
She was an early layer - 16 weeks.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Yes, there was a whole yolk and hen some really runny yolk inside the "egg" part.

Sounds like 2 eggs that got attached somehow, with one being soft and the other being all membrane.

She's still a young layer so some glitches are normal, though it wouldn't hurt to pop in calcium citrate tablets for a few days to hopefully help with shelling any other eggs in her system so she can get them out safely.