Picky hen and shell-less eggs

[Ilywilly]

Hi all,
So I have one hen, she is out in my garden free ranging all the time at night she puts herself into her coop and we close the door. She's been a good layer since I've had her (I adopted her as an adult 2 second laying year and had her for 5 months now). We had her in her coop most of the time until she got accustomed to us and she always ate well and layer well. I t he past month she's been out all day free ranging ans now she doesn't want to eat her commercial layer feed and in the last 3 days has suddenly stopped laying. I saw what looks like just albumin in her laying spot today.
Could this be a calcium difficiency ? There hasn't been a gradual decline in she egg quality, 4 days ago they were perfectly hard eggs, and now nothing but an albumin in the litter. She's very happy, free ranging around, has a great appetite for slugs and earthworms and my kale plants, but when I throw the layer feed she just walks away. So clearly she's a picky eater, so what next ? Lock her in her coop for a few days so she gets hungry and eats the layer feed ? Could that be the reason for the sudden stop in laying? Or are there two things happening at the same time ? Could she be egg bound also ? But she looks quite happy ? I'll lube up and check her vent this evening.
Thanks so much for your help.
Cheers,
Ilywilly

 

[Ilywilly]

Hi all,
So I have one hen, she is out in my garden free ranging all the time at night she puts herself into her coop and we close the door. She's been a good layer since I've had her (I adopted her as an adult 2 second laying year and had her for 5 months now). We had her in her coop most of the time until she got accustomed to us and she always ate well and layer well. I t he past month she's been out all day free ranging ans now she doesn't want to eat her commercial layer feed and in the last 3 days has suddenly stopped laying. I saw what looks like just albumin in her laying spot today.
Could this be a calcium difficiency ? There hasn't been a gradual decline in she egg quality, 4 days ago they were perfectly hard eggs, and now nothing but an albumin in the litter. She's very happy, free ranging around, has a great appetite for slugs and earthworms and my kale plants, but when I throw the layer feed she just walks away. So clearly she's a picky eater, so what next ? Lock her in her coop for a few days so she gets hungry and eats the layer feed ? Could that be the reason for the sudden stop in laying? Or are there two things happening at the same time ? Could she be egg bound also ? But she looks quite happy ? I'll lube up and check her vent this evening.
Thanks so much for your help.
Cheers,
Ilywilly

By the way please forgive my terrible spelling/grammer, I was typing while being crawled on my a 1 year old and I am just now reading what I typed after hitting send lol

 

[rosemarythyme]

If it's just the one time, I wouldn't worry about it, glitches happen.

She's probably not eating much feed because she has a lot of other stuff she'd rather eat while foraging. If you want to ensure that she eats some of her feed, keep her locked in for maybe the first half of the day (as she'll be hungriest when first waking) and then let her out in the latter half.

 

[Ilywilly]

If it's just the one time, I wouldn't worry about it, glitches happen.

She's probably not eating much feed because she has a lot of other stuff she'd rather eat while foraging. If you want to ensure that she eats some of her feed, keep her locked in for maybe the first half of the day (as she'll be hungriest when first waking) and then let her out in the latter half.

Thank you rosemarythyme,
She laid a perfect egg this morning so Amen for that ! That's great advice I will keep her in the coop in the morning to make sure she eats her ration. Thanks again.
Cheers,
Ilywilly