How to help an irregular egg layer?

Kawkawkaye

Songster
Nov 23, 2017
100
100
128
Kimberley, Western Australia
So we have this hen, isa brown, 1 year old. She’s absolutely enormous physically, queen of the flock. She also has a very irregular egg schedule: missing a day, laying twice in one day, laying in the evening, laying at midnight. She usually lays in her nest (unless it’s a midnight egg in which case it’s under her roost) but sometimes she’ll lay in random places suddenly like it catches her by surprise– I’ve seen her do this one time– she looks constipated for a few minutes (I call it ‘the egg look’), then will just squat on the spot and lay wherever she’s standing. What worries me most: she also has these moments where she seems to experience contractions, but no egg. She gets ‘the egg look’: fluffing up and getting a flushed face, (all standing up fyi), except I can’t feel an egg in her abdomen, and no egg comes from it by the end. It looks very uncomfortable and I’ve seen it last anywhere from ten minutes to a couple of hours.

Does anyone have any suggestions to help her out? Or any remedies I could try out to get her a bit more regular?

Or even what may be causing this– some kind of deficiency or something?

Thank you all in advance! :)
 
Also worth mentioning that she’s been a crazy egg layer for all of her short life. Her first egg was a massive triple yolker, and the six consecutive eggs after that were all double yolkers. She hasn’t laid a double in a good few months but I thought that background might be enlightening.
 
I'm no expert but I'm wondering if it's just some kind of reproductive issue, the same like humans get. Kind of like how some women are regular, some get a period more than once a month, some go months in between. I don't think theres anything that can be done but hopefully someone more experienced can help you better.
 
Is the irregularity new, or always been like that?
Is she is 14-18 months old and you live in the northern hemisphere,
she may be slowing production down and getting ready to molt.
Os she could have some wonky repro system glitches going on,
pretty common with high production hybrids.
 
Is the irregularity new, or always been like that?
Is she is 14-18 months old and you live in the northern hemisphere,
she may be slowing production down and getting ready to molt.
Os she could have some wonky repro system glitches going on,
pretty common with high production hybrids.
Yeah she’s pretty much laid like this since she started laying. We live in the southern hemisphere, in the tropics. It’s currently the dry season (~30°C max, 10°C min, dry, not humid), our older generation of chickens seem to moult around november—march. I do suspect that it’s something genetic, I was just hoping there was some remedy I could try to out help her :/
 
I do suspect that it’s something genetic, I was just hoping there was some remedy I could try to out help her
Not likely, just keep her in the best health possible.

We live in the southern hemisphere, in the tropics.
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