Pullet with very small (tiny tiny) vent- eggs?

[aggiemae]

Our Wellsummer is about 28 weeks old and still hasn't laid. She appears very healthy and has a bright red comb, but she is a hard to to catch. This afternoon she was sitting on top of the next box lid and just let me pick her up so I finally got the first good look at her that I've had since she left the brooder.

Everything checks out except she has a tiny vent. It actually took me about five minutes to find it and what I found was a horizontal slit about 1/2- 2/3 " across. I can open it and though it's small, it's moist, pulsing and looks normal inside. She's a nicely shaped hen and her pelvis seem normal and plenty wide.

Is this because she hasn't laid or a sign that she will never lay? Even though I was really looking forward to those dark brown eggs, I am hoping it's the latter because I doubt she could survive laying even a tiny egg.

 

[Big A Chickens]

There are a lot of us with this problem, myself included. I assume that you have checked to see if she is egg bound. Also i am not sure if you do, but if you allow you girl to free range she could be laying somewhere else. Her vent should be fine. My mom always tease me that my head was the size of a bowling ball when I was born, but I came through!!!! LOL Here vent will stretch to allow an egg to pass. Normally when they first start laying the eggs are usually small and gets larger the more they lay. I am not an expert, but I hope it helps!!!

 

[6littlechicks]

I found this with my cochin when I checked her about 6 weeks ago and then I rechecked her 2 weeks ago and her vent was way bigger and looked like my layer's vent and she just layed her first egg 2 days ago so as thet mature their vents open enough to let the egg pass and of course they stretch as well. Her vent was tiny when I checked th first time, like big enough to pass a pea so hers opened and looked normal in time for the egg.

 

[aggiemae]

Thanks for the input.

She isn't laying outside the nest and she isn't egg bound. The days are getting shorter so if she will ever lay it might not lay till spring so I switched them all back to growth formula with calcium on the side.

 

[6littlechicks]

good idea!

 

[aggiemae]

Someone suggested that I try lighting to force her laying. I didn't mention this but one of the laying hens doesn't seem to use the calcium on the side and the shells of her eggs are getting pretty thin.

I fed her a egg with the shell pureed into it today but I don't always have time to catch her and hand feed her.

You know, I think its more work having five chickens than I remember the over 50 layers and 100 meat birds we had growing up...

 

[PrairieChickens]

We have a hen--not sure which one--who will just periodically lay an egg with a very thin shell. Last week, we found one egg with no shell at all--just the membrane. Most of the time, however, she seems to be laying fine--she's obviously not laying thin eggs all the time because I only find such an egg once every couple of weeks, and there are days I know every laying hen produced an egg and we didn't have any with thin shells. We have oyster shell on the side for them that they can eat when they want it, so for now I'm not worrying about it.

 

[aggiemae]

Thought I would follow up! Lela (finally) laid her first egg in March when she was 11 months old and has been laying pretty dark brown specked egg almost every day since.



This was Lela's first egg!