- May 24, 2012
- 3
- 0
- 7
Hi everyone. I am seeking some advice for our pekin bantam hen. I do not know how old she is - we inhereited her along with two others when we bought our house nearly a year ago. She is and always has been in good health. I would estimate her age at between 3 and 4 years. She has laid since we took her on, but quite intermittently (1 egg every 2 to 3 days in decent conditions during appropriate seasons).
She might righly be a bit stressed right now due to her losing her 'best friend', being re-homed to her new mansion (I will put up some pics on the coop section at some point as I took inspiration from this site!) and the introduction of 5 new chicks.
This is the situation:
Prior to being re-homed she would go up into the nesting area and lie on the hay presumably attempting to lay (around 2-3 hours at a time) with no joy.
Since being re-homed it took her 48 hours to 'accept' the new nesting boxes. She picked her favourite box and for the last 4 days she has been lying down in there for similar intervals.
Now the important bit:
Her stomach seems to be pulsating and making a mild crunching noise. Her vent also seems to be contracting in time with the pulse and the crunch.
If I pick her up she seems to be perfectly calm and doesn't act as if in pain or make any strange noises. Her comb is vibrant red and she moves around forraging when she's not attempting to lay.
We feed her on mixed corn with occasional treats of egg, mash or boiled veg and she always has grit and oystershell available - in about 3 different sizes (although a few of her last eggs were very brittle and she doesn't seem to want to eat any grit/shell).
We don't and haven't ever fed her any pellets.
She has complete free range of the garden unless cold-windy or cold-snowy every day and is quite adept at finding worms, grubs and snails.
I do not have a wealth of experience in chicken keeping and I hope someone might be able to help. I can't find much on Google. I suspect this might be an 'egg bound' thing but I would really like to get the opinion of the BYC folk.
Many thanks,
Jonathan
She might righly be a bit stressed right now due to her losing her 'best friend', being re-homed to her new mansion (I will put up some pics on the coop section at some point as I took inspiration from this site!) and the introduction of 5 new chicks.
This is the situation:
Prior to being re-homed she would go up into the nesting area and lie on the hay presumably attempting to lay (around 2-3 hours at a time) with no joy.
Since being re-homed it took her 48 hours to 'accept' the new nesting boxes. She picked her favourite box and for the last 4 days she has been lying down in there for similar intervals.
Now the important bit:
Her stomach seems to be pulsating and making a mild crunching noise. Her vent also seems to be contracting in time with the pulse and the crunch.
If I pick her up she seems to be perfectly calm and doesn't act as if in pain or make any strange noises. Her comb is vibrant red and she moves around forraging when she's not attempting to lay.
We feed her on mixed corn with occasional treats of egg, mash or boiled veg and she always has grit and oystershell available - in about 3 different sizes (although a few of her last eggs were very brittle and she doesn't seem to want to eat any grit/shell).
We don't and haven't ever fed her any pellets.
She has complete free range of the garden unless cold-windy or cold-snowy every day and is quite adept at finding worms, grubs and snails.
I do not have a wealth of experience in chicken keeping and I hope someone might be able to help. I can't find much on Google. I suspect this might be an 'egg bound' thing but I would really like to get the opinion of the BYC folk.
Many thanks,
Jonathan
