Newly Laying Hen Acting Off

arkciel

Hatching
Aug 21, 2025
4
3
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I have a 25-week old olive egger that has been acting off for the past 4 days. She was much slower to develop than her flockmates and started laying on 8/10/25. On 8/18 she laid a soft egg right out in the open (she normally lays in nesting box) and immediately gobbled it down. Since then, she has acted off. She just stands or lays down. She's been drinking a ton of water. Her poops are mostly water (not frothy, no blood). She shows no interest in her food.

On 8/19 She ate 1/2 can of canned cat food - that's the only thing she showed interest in. She laid a normal egg.

8/20 - still acting off and standing or laying down. I separated her from the flock. I offered her her regular feed, grits, oystershell, as well as various greens, cooked corn and peas, and scrambled eggs and eggshells. She ate the peas/corn and scrambled egg and absolutely devoured the eggshells. I added electrolytes to her water.

8/21 - Today, she showed no interest in any food. Still drinking a ton. She's not panting, she doesn't seem in pain ( i checked her over and didn't find any tender spot or abnormalities). She is alert looking around just not moving much, not foraging. Her comb and wattles are red. There is no strange mucus or discharge from eyes, beak, rear. She is grooming herself. If anything, she might seem a bit wobbly or unbalanced when she does move.

None of the other hens are exhibiting any similar signs. They are all on the same free fed layer diet. They are free fed grit and oystershell. They also free range.

I am at a bit of a loss as to what it could be. Is it a calcium deficiency? is it more of a reproductive issue? Thank you for any tips or suggestions.
 
Welcome to BYC. Brand new layers can lay some shell-less eggs. But with her feeling poorly and not eating well, she could be having some reproductive disorder. Can you check and feel of her crop early tomorrow morning to see if it has emptied overnight? I would try to get her eating her balanced chicken feed instead of the other foods. A bit of egg is okay. You can add water to a little chicken feed for more interest.
 
Welcome to BYC. Brand new layers can lay some shell-less eggs. But with her feeling poorly and not eating well, she could be having some reproductive disorder. Can you check and feel of her crop early tomorrow morning to see if it has emptied overnight? I would try to get her eating her balanced chicken feed instead of the other foods. A bit of egg is okay. You can add water to a little chicken feed for more interest.
Thank you. I'll try adding water to her feed. I felt her crop this morning and it felt normal. These are my first chicken so I dont have a lot of experience with ill chickens but I didn't feel any lumps or hard spots in the crop area. I'll check again tomorrow.
Would giving her calcium citrate today help? Or should I wait?
 
I checked her crop this morning. I couldn't feel anything. She feels very thin. She is still not eating.
20250822_071330.jpg
This is how she is standing and her poop this morning.

20250822_071310.jpg
 
A little update in case this can help someone else.

8/22/25 I put her outside in an enclosure and she started eating grass, clovers and dandelion. Didn't touch any other food offered but at least it was an improvement over the previous day where all she did was just stand. I gave her calcium. I did notice her shaking her head and rubbing her beak against the ground quite a bit. That evening I gave her a DE dust bath (she's not dustbathing at all). I have seen no signs of mites or lice. No discharge from nose or eyes, no sneezing, no swelling anywhere. No egg.

8/23/2025 One of my other hens had tapeworm (noticed 8/22 evening) so I ended giving both a dose of Equimax this morning. She went back outside in her pen. She was a lot more active today, eating grass and clover as well as feed! I did notice her eating grit as well. She is getting nutri-drench in her water. She started scratching at the ground this afternoon and made herself a dust bath. This is first normal chicken behavior I've seen from her. :) She's still shaking her head/scratching her beak on the ground a lot but there's definite improvements. We are in a heat wave right now so I'm sure it's not helping but I'm keeping her cool. No egg.

At this point, I am cautiously optimistic but I still have no idea what's wrong.
 
Glad she seems like she's going a good direction.

Her eating her own egg and then "devouring" the eggshells could maybe mean a calcium deficiency and/or other vitamin deficiency? If she had a tapeworm, that could possibly explain her not getting all the nutrients she needed.

I hope she continues to improve for you! I agree with the poster above to try and limit to feed (or feed watered down to make mash), oyster shell on the side, fresh water, and maybe just a week of a calcium supplement. I've made the mistake in the past of offering a million things (melon! cat food! different brand of cat food! apples!), and it just muddies the water as to if they have an appetite or not.
 
It is fairly normal for a hen to gobbled sown a soft shell egg. Glad to hear that she is a little better. Equimax dosage is 0.16 ml for a 5 pound hen. Repeat it in 14 days.
 

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