Her first egg. And last?

[wendigo]

So I posted about this 2 or 3 weeks ago. My oldest chicken in the flock layed her first egg. It's been a month now and there are no signs of a second one. Is it normal to take her this long? I understand 1-2 weeks at first, but 1 whole month?

 

[Incukahlan]

Well, lets see if we can figure this out. How old is she, what breed is she, and what region are you located in? What are your highs right now? Sometimes it can take a long time for another egg. It's not all that common, but I have heard of it before. Do you currently have her on any lay crumbles/pellets? Is she exhibiting any signs of not feeling well, or anything abnormal at all? Do your hens free range, forage, or have a coop and run set up? The more details, the better.

 

[Incukahlan]

Also, are you positive that the last egg did indeed come from her? How did you come to this conclusion?

 

[wendigo]

I have no idea what breed she is. I will take a picture later if it helps. She is 6, almost 7 months old. I live in Eastern Europe and the temperature is very high during summers (35C+/95F+) and very low during winters (-10C/14F). We give them feed that helps with laying, vitamins and everything the vet recommended. It's where I get the supplies. We also feed them pasta, vegetables, some fruits from time to time and other table scraps that are not spicy. They live in their enclosure and they do forage. Within 3 days after I moved them in, the ground looked like surface of the moon. She isn't showing any signs of sickness. She eats, drinks and is energic. And I'm 100% confident that she layed the egg. She didn't eat when it was feeding time, about 1 hour before the egg showed up. She only sat in the straw, making that "an egg is coming" sound. I waited for 30 mins and then left, came an hour later to check and the egg was on the ground, in the middle of the yard. One thing I noticed, she didn't make that distinct sound after she layed the egg. She just layed it and continued with her chicken business.

 

[wendigo]

So any idea what's going on?

 

[Incukahlan]

Well it sounds like everything is fine and nothing abnormal is going on. She could very well just be waiting to lay again, for whatever reason, but it doesn't sound like she has any issues, or anything in her environment is keeping her from laying. She is just going to be a late bloomer. If you could post pics of her that may help determine the breed. If we knew the breed, then we could look at the normal statistics and see what her rate of maturity is. She could be slow to mature, and just had that one surprise egg as a spur of the moment kind of thing, but is now waiting to actually start her laying cycle. I really don't think that anything is wrong with her though. It sound like your birds live a very good life. Was she exposed to an extremely stressful event anytime after that first egg? I know that that can cause a sudden stop in hens who have been laying. I've had one of mine forget to put her shell on her egg after a really bad monsoon storm, lol. Post pics when you can. Where did you get her? Do you have any idea if she is even purebred? If she's mixed we might be able to determine one of the parents with pics, but mixes are hard to pin down sometimes.

 

[wendigo]

There's a market in my city where people from the nearby villages come and sell chickens and other yard birds and feed. At first we only bought one chicken to keep as a pet. But one week later we had a coop and an entire flock. I have no idea about her parents. And there haven't been any events that could stress the chickens.

This is her (sorry about the lighting, really crappy weather outside):

 

[sepaditty1]

She's cute!

 

[Incukahlan]

Well, I'm not sure on the breed, she looks like a mix to me. But with nothing unusual happening in her environment, and everything else sounding fine, there really isn't anything to point out a problem. The only thing that I would personally do is cut back on her foraging/treats for awhile and focus on her grains/lay crumbles. Sometimes I've noticed laying can decrease by an egg or two(with a hen that is established with laying already) when they aren't getting enough grains. But that's just my opinion of what I would do. Have you checked her for lice/mites?(check under waddles, neck, behind/around comb, and near the vent area) Those can slow/stop laying as well if too bad. She looks very healthy though, so I don't think she's sick or infested. All seems well, so it really just comes down to a waiting game I suppose. I'm never any good at them though, lol. Keep us updated.

 

[GravelandGrubs]

That looks like my black sex link hen, Shirley! She is about 20-21 weeks old. We were so excited to find her first egg yesterday, but there was nothing waiting for us today... wondering how long it will be for her next gift. We are in New Orleans - daily highs right now are about 80-85 and lows about 70.