- Jun 21, 2010
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Hi all,
I have a year and a half old Buff Orpington named Ponyo, who recently has been developing some odd egg laying habits. She used to be a great egg layer, we called her Old Faithful because she always came through with an egg and always laid in her nesting box.
But for the past few months, she hasn't been laying much at all, maybe twice a week. I figured this was just because it is winter. But then I noticed that she has been getting egg bound, I think she has been egg bound twice so far. And she now has this weird habit of laying in random places, on the cement, in the grass, on my front step. But she NEVER did this before?? Just today she laid two eggs in a row on my front step, at 5 pm, and one was not fully formed, and translucent...
Its not that she has no place to lay, we have a chicken "mansion" with glass windows for the best lighting, shingles, double stories, and built in nesting boxes. (My uncles an avid carpenter, and gave it to us as a present) And we keep it spick and span clean.
I am starting to wonder if something is off with her egg laying system?
She has a great appetite, and eats like a hog.
I don't feed her a set feed from the pet store, mostly because the packaged chicken feed in all the pet stores here are very low quality. Her food is different everyday, but she generally gets rice, and left over meat and veggies, I always try to include a varied diet with good nutritional value. I give her cod liver oil, apple cider vinegar, and coconut oil as supplements. I give her yogurt and bake egg shells and give it to her for calcium. But we have no set feed, I think maybe I might be missing some essential nutrients that would aid in egg laying, and maybe this is why she is developing these weird habits?
We don't have a bowl of food out for the chickens at all times, rather we feed them once in the morning and throughout the day we throw out food. Besides this they are completely free range and have my huge backyard to find food in. They eat plenty of grass (our eggs are ORANGE from the bena carotene from the grass) and they find lots of bugs too.
Should I be feeding my Orp some supplements to help out with her egg laying?
And what the heck is going on with her weird habits?
Please help! This is my first hen ever, and I share a bond with her. I need your wisdom!
I have a year and a half old Buff Orpington named Ponyo, who recently has been developing some odd egg laying habits. She used to be a great egg layer, we called her Old Faithful because she always came through with an egg and always laid in her nesting box.
But for the past few months, she hasn't been laying much at all, maybe twice a week. I figured this was just because it is winter. But then I noticed that she has been getting egg bound, I think she has been egg bound twice so far. And she now has this weird habit of laying in random places, on the cement, in the grass, on my front step. But she NEVER did this before?? Just today she laid two eggs in a row on my front step, at 5 pm, and one was not fully formed, and translucent...
Its not that she has no place to lay, we have a chicken "mansion" with glass windows for the best lighting, shingles, double stories, and built in nesting boxes. (My uncles an avid carpenter, and gave it to us as a present) And we keep it spick and span clean.
I am starting to wonder if something is off with her egg laying system?
She has a great appetite, and eats like a hog.
We don't have a bowl of food out for the chickens at all times, rather we feed them once in the morning and throughout the day we throw out food. Besides this they are completely free range and have my huge backyard to find food in. They eat plenty of grass (our eggs are ORANGE from the bena carotene from the grass) and they find lots of bugs too.
Should I be feeding my Orp some supplements to help out with her egg laying?
And what the heck is going on with her weird habits?
Please help! This is my first hen ever, and I share a bond with her. I need your wisdom!
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