New hen laying - problems?

[Sarahh_Janeyy]

So I've been reading a lot about egg binding and possible signs.

I have a chicken that laid her first egg Sunday, July 19. I didn't see her do it, but no one else was showing the signs and she's the only one I saw in the nest box. (The other laying hen already laid that day.) Monday she acted like she was going to lay, in and out of the nest box all day, but she didn't. Tues she didn't go to the nest box and didn't show interest. Today she's been in and out of the nest box, but hasn't laid and I'm beginning to worry. I wouldn't be worried except the last few days her poops have been extra watery. It's upwards of 90F here in Florida, and she's drinking a lot of water, and I give them watermelon rinds with probiotics and brewers yeast. So I figured she was pooping excess water. But most of the other chickens have fairly solid poops with the occasional watery one.

Chicken in question has a history of vitamin deficiency so I was worried what would happen when she started to lay. She's not looking lethargic per se, she's walking, eating, drinking. But she's been hanging out by the waterer, standing looking hot/stressed with her wings out a bit, and panting. She's laid down a few times but it's not like she normally sits.

They have crushed egg shells free choice. I've already given her 1/4th of a 750mg tums tablet with some nutridrench mixed into some peanut butter. I tried to feel her abdomen but I didn't feel anything. I'm new to this so I'm not sure if I'm missing it /what it's supposed to feel like. I'm not seeing anything in her poop that looks like crushed egg or anything. She's not showing any other signs like waddling, she just looks heat stressed.

Thoughts? I'm resisting bringing her in to soak her if I don't have to, we had her inside for over a month while she was recovering from wry neck and feathering out and I know (ask me how) that soaking her in a warm tub of water will stress her out more. Thinking of bringing her in soon to try KY jelly around the vent and probe for an egg.

Is there anything else it could be? Just read so much on egg binding I'm afraid she'll just die on us suddenly. But if she can poop, even if it's watery, is that still a possibility? That "48hrs come be dead" thing is pretty terrifying.

Thanks all.

 

[Kiki]

Leave her be.
She's a new layer..give he a week or two to work out the kinks of laying eggs regularly.

Don't feed treats...which can prevent her from getting a balanced diet.

What exact feed do you feed?

 

[Sarahh_Janeyy]

Leave her be.
She's a new layer..give he a week or two to work out the kinks of laying eggs regularly.

Don't feed treats...which can prevent her from getting a balanced diet.

What exact feed do you feed?

Currently:
Kalmbach Feeds All Natural 17% Protein Layer Pellets Chicken Feed
mixed with Henny Penny Scratch Chicken Feed

Previously:
Because I had gotten Kalmbach Feeds All Natural Henhouse Reserve Premium Layer Chicken Feed probably as an over-correction to previously feeding DuMOR Poultry Grower/Finisher 15% Feed. The DuMor's came from Tractor Supply and my chickens were feather eating and one of them had not grown her feathers so I was afraid they were stocked with old product that was devoid of nutrients. So I went to Chewy and bought "the best chicken food I could find" but Henhouse Reserve was full of scratch and I was afraid that in this heat, that wouldn't be the best food for them. So I thought that mixing my own, with the 17% protein Kalmbach pellets, and a little bit of scratch (it's not much), it'd get closer to balanced while trying to make sure they were getting enough protein to be able to grow their feathers (the hen in question did not have feathers on her back and tail when we brought her inside because another chicken was picking and eating her feathers). Everyone seems much better now, except 1 ameurcana that still tries to eat feathers and acts like she's never eaten ever.

For treats they get Flygrub's dried black soldier fly larvae - not every day, just every few day or so. They are only getting watermelon rind because it's so hot out. Sometimes they get plain greek yogurt mixed with benebac probiotics and brewer's yeast as well as some VermX pellets - mostly because Chipmunk had all the vitamin deficiency problems and she had low-non-existent gut bacteria when we took her to the vet about her wry neck. They also eat weeds - mostly spanish needle and Florida pusley cus that's what's around here/their coop.

I know it probably seems like I'm overdoing it- but it's not like I have much else to focus on during the pandemic isolation >_< also we really love these girls. First time chicken parents and all that... Thanks for your response!

 

[coach723]

New layers do not always lay consistently at first. Some do, some don't, it can take awhile for their systems to get everything figured out. In addition, the heat can really take a toll on them and that can contribute to a drop in laying, even for those that do lay regularly. If she was egg bound, she would not be passing droppings. Speckled sussex are not the most heat tolerant of breeds (they aren't the worst either) , I have them too, and it has been pretty hot here for the last month. I wouldn't be too concerned, try to do things to help them stay cool, change out water so it's cool, put frozen water bottles in waterers, wet the ground in the shade, use misters if you have them, if you can set up box fans in a couple of places outside the wire where they can't get to them to move the air it can help. I will often leave a hose running on a trickle in the run under a tree so they have a wet spot that is always cool in the hottest part of the day. I have a very large open run, so that doesn't cause a mess for me. You can also put shallow dishes of water out in the shade that they can stand in (unless you have babies that could drown in them).

 

[Kiki]

Currently:
Kalmbach Feeds All Natural 17% Protein Layer Pellets Chicken Feed
mixed with Henny Penny Scratch Chicken Feed

Previously:
Because I had gotten Kalmbach Feeds All Natural Henhouse Reserve Premium Layer Chicken Feed probably as an over-correction to previously feeding DuMOR Poultry Grower/Finisher 15% Feed. The DuMor's came from Tractor Supply and my chickens were feather eating and one of them had not grown her feathers so I was afraid they were stocked with old product that was devoid of nutrients. So I went to Chewy and bought "the best chicken food I could find" but Henhouse Reserve was full of scratch and I was afraid that in this heat, that wouldn't be the best food for them. So I thought that mixing my own, with the 17% protein Kalmbach pellets, and a little bit of scratch (it's not much), it'd get closer to balanced while trying to make sure they were getting enough protein to be able to grow their feathers (the hen in question did not have feathers on her back and tail when we brought her inside because another chicken was picking and eating her feathers). Everyone seems much better now, except 1 ameurcana that still tries to eat feathers and acts like she's never eaten ever.

For treats they get Flygrub's dried black soldier fly larvae - not every day, just every few day or so. They are only getting watermelon rind because it's so hot out. Sometimes they get plain greek yogurt mixed with benebac probiotics and brewer's yeast as well as some VermX pellets - mostly because Chipmunk had all the vitamin deficiency problems and she had low-non-existent gut bacteria when we took her to the vet about her wry neck. They also eat weeds - mostly spanish needle and Florida pusley cus that's what's around here/their coop.

I know it probably seems like I'm overdoing it- but it's not like I have much else to focus on during the pandemic isolation >_< also we really love these girls. First time chicken parents and all that... Thanks for your response!

I highly recommend that you stop and mixing scratch in with your layer feed.

 

[Kiki]

Overdoing it with all the treats and extras is going to cause problems.
You really should only feed them a layer type feed and stop all of the treats.

 

[Sarahh_Janeyy]

New layers do not always lay consistently at first. Some do, some don't, it can take awhile for their systems to get everything figured out. In addition, the heat can really take a toll on them and that can contribute to a drop in laying, even for those that do lay regularly. If she was egg bound, she would not be passing droppings. Speckled sussex are not the most heat tolerant of breeds (they aren't the worst either) , I have them too, and it has been pretty hot here for the last month. I wouldn't be too concerned, try to do things to help them stay cool, change out water so it's cool, put frozen water bottles in waterers, wet the ground in the shade, use misters if you have them, if you can set up box fans in a couple of places outside the wire where they can't get to them to move the air it can help. I will often leave a hose running on a trickle in the run under a tree so they have a wet spot that is always cool in the hottest part of the day. I have a very large open run, so that doesn't cause a mess for me. You can also put shallow dishes of water out in the shade that they can stand in (unless you have babies that could drown in them).

We did try this bucket top misting fan they HATED it, I tried everything to get them to like it including putting treats near it. They really hated the mist.

I regularly go out there with ice and put it in their water (I went from nipple drinkers, to oasis cups, and now I have an auto-filling bowl I'm trying out- all hooked up to a rain barrel. So I go put ice cubes in everything and often bring out another bowl with ice water. They don't seem to stand in it or anything, but they do drink it. We put up a sun sail which doubled their available shade space- they already had space under the coop since it's a good ways above the ground.

My hottest bird is this really fluffy silver penciled rock - weirdly the barred rock and dominique aren't having as much trouble as she is and aren't nearly as fluffy. I really thought they'd be the same kinda bird just different feather patterning >_<

I tried to read up on which birds would at least tolerate heat, but it seems even Florida overwhelmed those choices...

At any rate, they are doing what they do in the heat, and I'm doing what I can to mitigate! I really wish they liked the mister though, I thought I was brilliant for buying one of those >_<

 

[LaFleche]

With all the extras and the amount of water she is drinking due to the heat she might lack the necessary amount of calcium for her muscles to contract properly.

I would give her some calcium+vitamin D3+vitamin K for a couple of days. This should also help with weak legs.

 

[Sarahh_Janeyy]

With all the extras and the amount of water she is drinking due to the heat she might lack the necessary amount of calcium for her muscles to contract properly.

I would give her some calcium+vitamin D3+vitamin K for a couple of days. This should also help with weak legs.

What product might you suggest with the calcium/D3/vit K - we have nutridrench but could not find a liquid calcium product so went with part of a human tums tablet.

 

[Sarahh_Janeyy]

I think I might be giving you the wrong idea about the treats- they don't get a ton of treats, just enough to mix with their supplements. The flygrubs are REALLY not very frequent. We are really worried about Chipmunk getting wry neck again, hence the supplements, she's kind of our problem chicken.

That said, noted about the layer feed- I didn't realize henhouse reserve would be so much scratch when I bought it, which is why I immediately bought the layer pellets and mixed those together so the scratch content was less. We had gotten rid of the DuMors after Chipmunk got sick.