NOT going broody!

[chuckachucka]

4 months is a long time to be mothering the chicks.....and she did not lay during that time? Has she ever molted?

She has moulted a couple of times, once more severely. I've heard that it is common for Asil hens to mother their chicks for a long time although she is my only hen of that breed. My other hens have always weaned around two months. In the past she has resumed laying right before kicking out the chicks, so she will go almost the whole four months without laying.

I have no experience of viruses with my chickens (yet!) But from what I've read Im not sure if infectious bronchitis fits. For starters her egg shells always get poorer in quality the more eggs she lays. By this I mean her first laying cycle starTed with smooth pale brown eggs and ended a few weeks later with white eggs with bumps on. Then when she starTed laying again he eggs looked good and gradually got worse in time until her next brood. By with each laying cycle they seem to end up worse. I keep meaning to get photos of the shells she is producing lately. They don't look as crinkly as the pics online of eģgs from hens infected with bronchitis.

Also she has never shown any other symptoms and neither do my other chickens. I have four puĺlets all laying normal looking eggs at the moment.

I'm thinking it could be a hormone imbalance thing because she has always been very dominant and aggressve. At one point in the first year of her life she even crowed every day for a few weeks.

 

[aart]

She's just 'special', in several ways, I guess.