Laying Seems to be Taking a Lot Out of Her. . .

[d.k]

* Chook lays ever other day-- usually by noon. Seems to me that sometimes recently she's taking a bit longer to recover, sort of "taking the afternoon off". All else seems completely normal. What do you think? Is this normal?

 

[Farmer Kitty]

First off, what do you mean by "taking the afternoon off"?

Second, how old and what breed?

Third, what are you feeding? Could there be something off here? Have you changed feed or gotten a new bag at about the time this started?

 

[d.k]

* She's just REALLY quiet the rest of the afternoon. She lays, has some water, eats her lunch, and usually just 'hangs out' the rest of the day until dinner & bedtime. Right now, she's in her 'pop-up', a springy yard barrel she adopted. I don't know her breed for sure. She's a 7pt. single BIG combed, all white hen. She's almost exactly 1 year old +/- at estimate. Nothing in her feed has changed signficantly. She gets Layena and a few extras.

 

[s6bee]

Maybe she's getting ready to molt? I don't really know.

 

[d.k]

*She had a light molt in September, just after she recovered from the possum attack and just a month or so b/f she started to lay.

 

[CarriBrown]

Do you put vitamins, like Avia Charge, in their water? It wouldn't hurt.
Are you having weather changes? Mine seem to go through something like that when it starts to get hot.

 

[d.k]

*Nothing in her water-- but HOT, Oh yeaaah!! 6PM now and 82 degrees!

 

[silkiechicken]

Maybe she is just maturing? If shes just a year old, she could be calming down. My pullets bounce off the walls for a few months after they start to lay, but tend to be more relaxed and spend more time resting on the straw and putting deposits that you stick your hand into expecting clean straw to put into their coops... yuck. They also stop announcing the fact they laid an egg and just do an in and out operation. Or maybe she wants a friend? If she's just quiet, I wouldn't worry so much. If she starts to sleep more, hunch down, stop laying, and there are changes in her poo, then start to worry.

 

[silkiechicken]

d.k :

*Nothing in her water-- but HOT, Oh yeaaah!! 6PM now and 82 degrees!

Sounds like you found the problem right there! As soon as it hits 75F, my birds start to suffer outside and just lay in the dirt all day long. Humidity is in the 60-80 range which doesn't help them either.​

 

[d.k]

* Could be a bit of both, maturing and heat. I hadn't thought about that. She's got plenty of shade and water and she does seem to get more 'energetic' just as the sun starts to go down, and she's taken 2 dirt baths in the past 2 weeks!! Starting to look like a "hobo" bird again. . .(Humidity, jeez! What could I do about that?? It's freakin' FLORIDA and we're no where close to topping out on that score!!!! ~ )