My EE hen is confused...

[torrelee]

I have a flock of 4, one of which is an EE. She isn't friendly, and I only bought her because I wanted green eggs! She is about a year old, and she laid for a couple of months regularly. She then made one really big egg, one tiny egg, and then quit. She now occasionally makes the worst attempt at a crow, so I am assuming she is trying to take on that role in the flock. It is kind of humorous, she sounds ridiculous, but is she going to start laying again? It has been a couple of months, and I was hoping that her plumbing would just kick back in and force her to lay whether she wanted to or not. I'm a terrible farmer, so I just continue feeding her, but I would like to get eggs from her again. Is this normal? Can she grow out of it? Is there something I can do to encourage her to lay? I even considered getting a rooster, but don't want to bug my neighbors!



This is her and her sister. I got them from the guy at a parrot rescue at the same time. "purebred" BO, lol. I took a gamble on the slate legs, hoping for green

 

[Veer67]

Is she the flock leader? If you have no roosters around then she could be taking on a rooster's role, including crowing.

 

[gmendoza]

I have a flock of 4, one of which is an EE. She isn't friendly, and I only bought her because I wanted green eggs! She is about a year old, and she laid for a couple of months regularly. She then made one really big egg, one tiny egg, and then quit. She now occasionally makes the worst attempt at a crow, so I am assuming she is trying to take on that role in the flock. It is kind of humorous, she sounds ridiculous, but is she going to start laying again? It has been a couple of months, and I was hoping that her plumbing would just kick back in and force her to lay whether she wanted to or not. I'm a terrible farmer, so I just continue feeding her, but I would like to get eggs from her again. Is this normal? Can she grow out of it? Is there something I can do to encourage her to lay? I even considered getting a rooster, but don't want to bug my neighbors!



This is her and her sister. I got them from the guy at a parrot rescue at the same time. "purebred" BO, lol. I took a gamble on the slate legs, hoping for green

seems to me she is stubborn.

some of my hens are that way. Stubborn. We don't have any roosters anymore and they crow, they will lay a big egg, then a fart egg, then no eggs for weeks. They also start grunting/growling.

she is showing who is boss of the henhouse.

She is your hen-boss. She might lay when the others find her to be the boss.

 

[sbhkma]

They also start grunting/growling.

I am chicken, hear me roar?

 

[torrelee]

This sounds like what I was thinking. I thought my SLW cross was the boss hen lady, but there are almost two flocks in my coop. They run around in pairs most of the time. Can they just shut off egg production though? Can I expect her to lay again? I've never kept a rooster (I've only had hens for about three years), but I've never had one stop laying to pretend she was a rooster either?!?