Our hen stopped laying eggs, won't jump up to the roost, was showing signs of being egg-bound (but could still poop) , & was plucking her feathers,

[lsumner95]

This will be a little long-winded, so I apologize ahead of time.

TLDR our largest hen, Vendetta, suddenly stopped laying eggs, wouldn't jump up to the roost, and looked like she might have been egg-bound, but she can poop. It has been 4 days since I noticed her looking off; she was quarantined in the house for 3 days and is now back with the rest of the chickens and doing very well. I am worried something is still wrong, though, since she has not laid an egg in the past 4 days. She has what appears to be a minor scaly leg mite infestation, which may be contributing, but it is under control. I also suspect that she may have injured one or both of her legs, but I can't tell which one or how she would have done it.

We have a year-and-a-half-old Cookoo Moran named Vendetta who stopped jumping up to the roost to sleep with the rest of the flock. The first two times it happened, I thought maybe it was a fluke, and I just scooped her up and set her on the roost.

When I picked her up, I did a quick once-over to see if she had any signs of distress or illness. She has been molting, so there was some minor feather loss, and I thought her belly might have looked a little big, but she is our beefy hen and has always had a big belly, so I did not really think much of it. She settled in with the rest of the flock, and they didn't mind her presence.

When I saw she was not roosting on the third night, I decided something was wrong, so I brought her inside for a closer inspection. I still could not identify what was wrong, but I thought maybe she was egg-bound since her belly did look quite large. We had her soak in warm water and then very gently massaged her belly for a bit, and then we quarantined her inside so that, in case she was sick, she would not spread it to the other hens. Having her inside also makes it easier to monitor her closely.

She stayed inside for two nights and almost three days. Over that time, she did not lay an egg, but her condition did appear to improve. I noticed that she didn't really want to move around and would stand on one foot at a time, so one or both of her legs may have gotten injured, but I do not know how. She gradually became perkier, her feathers looked less droopy, she started moving around more, and she began to peck and scratch at her bedding and the apple slices we gave her. This morning, I reintegrated her with the rest of the flock. I have moved the water to the ground level temporarily to ensure she has access to it if she continues to refuse to use the upper level where the roost is. She is not giving any sign of illness and is happily socializing with the rest of the flock.

I noticed that a couple of the hens looked like they may have a minor scaly leg mite infestation, so we smothered their legs with coconut oil and added some more diatomaceous earth to the coop. We clean it regularly and add diatomaceous earth to it weekly, so I was a little surprised to see the scales on their legs a little dried out and slightly enlarged. Only 3 of the 6 had signs of the mites. I am not sure if the mites would cause Vendetta to stop laying when she is not showing signs of anemia.

Does anyone have similar experiences or any tips for figuring out what is going on with Vendetta? All of our hens have reduced their laying, so I am a little worried there is a flock-wide issue that is sitting right under my nose, but my husband said that they reduced production at the same time last year as the weather gets colder and the sun sets sooner.

 

[NatJ]

All of our hens have reduced their laying, so I am a little worried there is a flock-wide issue that is sitting right under my nose, but my husband said that they reduced production at the same time last year as the weather gets colder and the sun sets sooner.

I think your husband has the correct explanation for what is going on with the whole flock.

It is possible to have hens lay well all winter long by providing artificial light (to give the effect of long days). Commercial egg producers do that to have plenty of eggs to sell. For people that keep chickens as pets, some do and some do not.

We have a year-and-a-half-old Cookoo Moran named Vendetta

...stopped laying eggs, wouldn't jump up to the roost, and looked like she might have been egg-bound, but she can poop.

she has not laid an egg in the past 4 days.

I don't really know what to say about Vendetta. These parts ^ make me think she might be molting.

Most hens molt in the fall, and some hens get miserable and cranky when they do molt. Most hens also stop laying eggs when they molt. So you might check to see if she is molting. A molting chicken may be obviously missing feathers, or they may have a bunch of pinfeathers hiding under feathers that look almost normal on the surface. You can spread the feathers apart and look underneath to see. Pinfeathers look like a bunch of toothpicks or little sticks.

If Vendetta is molting, there may not be anything you can do or should do.

Here is an account of one hen molting:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/a-molting-story.1504702/
She looks rather miserable in some of the photos!

If all your hens are the same age, the others are likely to molt within the next few months as well.

She has what appears to be a minor scaly leg mite infestation, which may be contributing, but it is under control.

Scaly leg mites are definitely a problem that should get treated, so I'm glad you found them and addressed them.

I also suspect that she may have injured one or both of her legs, but I can't tell which one or how she would have done it.

I noticed that she didn't really want to move around and would stand on one foot at a time, so one or both of her legs may have gotten injured, but I do not know how.

If she did injure her legs, they may get better on their own, or they may need attention. I would suggest you keep an eye on how she is doing, and see if she goes back to using them normally.

I suppose she could have landed wrong when she jumped down from the perch one day. That's the first thing I can think of that would cause a leg injury to a chicken who lives in a safe coop & run. There are probably other options too.

Or she might have been standing oddly because something else was wrong. I've seen humans stand weirdly and walk weirdly when they have a stomach ache, or a headache, or an injured shoulder, or various other things that have nothing to do with the legs and feet.