- Nov 25, 2011
- 5
- 0
- 7
THE REAL PROBLEM AT HAND -
She hasn't layed once, until now....and she's something like 8 months or more old.
(I was beginning to wonder if maybe she was just a VERY feminine roo.....joke, joke...lol....>.>....anyway it took longer than I expected, from what I've looked up.)
She started freaking out though, and I just got the feeling she was finally trying to lay. She couldn't, for over a day and a half....maybe two. We determined that she was "egg-bound"....so we lubed up her bottom with some oil and a few hours after that she did pass the egg....
When I found the egg....it was only 20% smaller than a normal sized egg, at best......and there was pretty much NO shell....OK she hasn't been getting enough calcium.... Question....? Would the softness of the shell create the problem in the process of laying? At the end of it she was breathing hard and drooping and we were afraid she was doomed...
Afterwards she slept it off, though she didn't seem to want anything to do with the egg she just had, which sucks because I want her to make a baby or two, at least.....
NOW....we're trying hard not to have a repeat of the last time. She was in so much pain and I don't want that to happen again. BUT she won't eat the oyster shells we're giving her, at all....currently I'm trying to feed her milk, from what I've looked up seems to be at least not bad for them.....but I don't know what to feed her.
Both my hen and my roo are WAY more picky than the other chickens seem to be. I figure they probably are a bit spoiled.....but I don't want to let them starve and just deal with the oyster shell as food until they learn to eat it....because it's probably bad for the rooster (they freak out when separated so they eat the same things usually) and from what I've read my hen could be laying again a day or two later, with probably the same result.....pain and thin eggshells, oil in the bottom and ugh....>.>!
THE BACKSTORY OF IT ALL-
Okay....this is somewhat unrelated to the egglaying issue, and where I might just ask for some general advice....
This is my first time owning chickens.....I only have them because my in-laws bought a flock of normal sized chickens and 2 bantams....and decided to put the regulars outside when it was waaaaaay too cold for the fragile baby bantams....so I kept them in my apartment to keep them warm and safe until they got "bigger" and were able to go outside with the others. Well....eventually we realized that we had one rooster and one hen on our hands. Once we tried putting them in with the regular sized flock and well....that rooster just will not stop trying to fight the larger hens, and eventually the normal sized rooster comes in and then they try to fight. It just doesn't work.....I think that my little bantam roo will pick a fight with anything, sometimes including me, though, excluding his female counterpart...who at times seems to be the one wearing the pants, until he's won and he's the most macho roo in the world. I know it's in his nature.....but he's kind've a douche, please forgive the language....I don't know how else to put it. So anyway.....me and my husband have fallen in love with the sweet bantam hen....our goal is to keep them safe and together until we can raise another bantam hen or two to keep her company, then sell or give away the rooster to a place he can have more hens and not crow and wake us up and constantly disrupts the peace...>.>.... (by the way if you want a rooster and you live in the northern IL area please feel free to PM me) Another question I have is.....if we were to just leave them in with the normal-sized flock of chickens would the bantam rooster eventually get beaten up enough, lose dominance and just learn to live along with them.....or would he be miserable? The fact that there's only 2 bantams makes me think they'd be screwed in that situation.....and another question.....what sort of winter temperatures can bantams safely endure? We have a back-up plan but we'd like to build them an outside enclosure for the winter if possible....but I hear this winter is going to be particularly bad!
I'm a n00b to chickens and probably never should have even had them in the first place but under the circumstances I've got them and now I love those little guys.....any advice would be more than welcome.
She hasn't layed once, until now....and she's something like 8 months or more old.
(I was beginning to wonder if maybe she was just a VERY feminine roo.....joke, joke...lol....>.>....anyway it took longer than I expected, from what I've looked up.)
She started freaking out though, and I just got the feeling she was finally trying to lay. She couldn't, for over a day and a half....maybe two. We determined that she was "egg-bound"....so we lubed up her bottom with some oil and a few hours after that she did pass the egg....
When I found the egg....it was only 20% smaller than a normal sized egg, at best......and there was pretty much NO shell....OK she hasn't been getting enough calcium.... Question....? Would the softness of the shell create the problem in the process of laying? At the end of it she was breathing hard and drooping and we were afraid she was doomed...
NOW....we're trying hard not to have a repeat of the last time. She was in so much pain and I don't want that to happen again. BUT she won't eat the oyster shells we're giving her, at all....currently I'm trying to feed her milk, from what I've looked up seems to be at least not bad for them.....but I don't know what to feed her.
Both my hen and my roo are WAY more picky than the other chickens seem to be. I figure they probably are a bit spoiled.....but I don't want to let them starve and just deal with the oyster shell as food until they learn to eat it....because it's probably bad for the rooster (they freak out when separated so they eat the same things usually) and from what I've read my hen could be laying again a day or two later, with probably the same result.....pain and thin eggshells, oil in the bottom and ugh....>.>!
THE BACKSTORY OF IT ALL-
Okay....this is somewhat unrelated to the egglaying issue, and where I might just ask for some general advice....
This is my first time owning chickens.....I only have them because my in-laws bought a flock of normal sized chickens and 2 bantams....and decided to put the regulars outside when it was waaaaaay too cold for the fragile baby bantams....so I kept them in my apartment to keep them warm and safe until they got "bigger" and were able to go outside with the others. Well....eventually we realized that we had one rooster and one hen on our hands. Once we tried putting them in with the regular sized flock and well....that rooster just will not stop trying to fight the larger hens, and eventually the normal sized rooster comes in and then they try to fight. It just doesn't work.....I think that my little bantam roo will pick a fight with anything, sometimes including me, though, excluding his female counterpart...who at times seems to be the one wearing the pants, until he's won and he's the most macho roo in the world. I know it's in his nature.....but he's kind've a douche, please forgive the language....I don't know how else to put it. So anyway.....me and my husband have fallen in love with the sweet bantam hen....our goal is to keep them safe and together until we can raise another bantam hen or two to keep her company, then sell or give away the rooster to a place he can have more hens and not crow and wake us up and constantly disrupts the peace...>.>.... (by the way if you want a rooster and you live in the northern IL area please feel free to PM me) Another question I have is.....if we were to just leave them in with the normal-sized flock of chickens would the bantam rooster eventually get beaten up enough, lose dominance and just learn to live along with them.....or would he be miserable? The fact that there's only 2 bantams makes me think they'd be screwed in that situation.....and another question.....what sort of winter temperatures can bantams safely endure? We have a back-up plan but we'd like to build them an outside enclosure for the winter if possible....but I hear this winter is going to be particularly bad!
I'm a n00b to chickens and probably never should have even had them in the first place but under the circumstances I've got them and now I love those little guys.....any advice would be more than welcome.
