Serama not laying!

[Chicken poppy]

Hello all. My Serama (Darling) has stopped laying eggs for a very long while now. Almost over 1 month. Its been so long! Shes only a year and a half old, so she shouldn’t be not laying eggs, right?

As well as this: she looks quite strange. Someone said she looks to have a frizzle gene. It would look like that to me to, but the egg thing is making me think that this might be apart of it? Here is a older photo of her when i got her. Someone said she was molting when i first got her, and at the time i didn’t pay much mind to it because i didn’t read that Seramas dont actually molt like normal chickens. And, she was laying during her “molt”
She has never been a good egg layer sense i got her. There seemed to be multiple intervals of just stopping egg production completely. But at that time, she was inside in a dark area cause of winter. So i excused it for that.
Her back feathers are perfect now with a lovely green sheen, and she seems to overall be improving beautifully. However now she has a ton of white things on her comb (both sides)
She seems much better though.

Her last egg was during the end of May.

Then again, i know Seramas are awful layers. Just looking for some insight.

 

[GermanKennhuhn]

Could she have some vitamin deficiency? @Eggcessive

 

[SilverBirds]

Firstly, Seramas are terrible layers. Absolutely terrible. Mine will lay maybe 3-4 eggs a week and then stop out of the blue for what seems like forever before resuming laying. The only time I feel they lay daily is when they want to go broody. The back of her neck looks a little mangey but she's not frizzled. As for the dots on her comb, have you checked for your other chickens for the dots? Have you looked for mice/lice?

 

[Chicken poppy]

Firstly, Seramas are terrible layers. Absolutely terrible. Mine will lay maybe 3-4 eggs a week and then stop out of the blue for what seems like forever before resuming laying. The only time I feel they lay daily is when they want to go broody. The back of her neck looks a little mangey but she's not frizzled. As for the dots on her comb, have you checked for your other chickens for the dots? Have you looked for mice/lice?

I totally get that! She would lay (at best) every other day, occasionally skipping. But 1, almost 2 months without one egg? Thats strange!

And, for what its worth: i gave her safeguard because one of my chickens had worms in the poop and i just gave everyone some, i figured it wouldn’t hurt because i don’t eat the eggs anyway, and they all come in contact with the same yard on a daily, so if one has it, chances are more do to. After that (no clue if it was safeguard, the other chickens eggs were wonky the first day off, then fine the rest.) however she had soft shelled eggs every time she laid! That was the last eggs she had laid and then she stopped, here we are. Soft shelled laying went on about 5 times, then no more eggs.

Yes i have, no one else has them, she had them when she got them and i was told they were some acne or whatever. I have checked and saw no mice or lice, just some dust that rubbed off. But i will check again.

And i was sure she wasn’t frizzled, but thought it was possible to have frizzled genes? Maybe not? No clue!

 

[Chicken poppy]

So i saw some images that looked pretty identical to Darling. *Page 8* https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...ue-can-be-included-here-as-well.474403/page-8

This was one of them. the first image looked super close, and they were claimed to be some frizzled serama?

I guess they posted it on a different thread saying they were frizzled, so i’ll have to find that.

I think Darling is much worse, and these feathers are just a tad choppy. But still, thoughts?

And, i’ll have to get a picture tomorrow (sorry for all the questions) but is it possible to have some Dark chocolate serama? I know it sounds weird, and i didn’t think so. But Darling seems to be a dark brown, not a true black. She seems more and more brown the more i own her, but then again, i doubt thats possible.

 

[Dinoroar]

My 1 1/2 yo serama went broody late January & hatched her her eggs mid February. She didn’t lay again until the beginning of May . After that she laid quite sporadically for a few weeks & then started laying almost daily.

Agree the rough feathers could indicate some kind of deficiency… but outside of other symptoms your girls laying seems pretty normal for the breed.

What feed are you using? Maybe she needs more nutrients or sunlight?

 

[Chicken poppy]

My 1 1/2 yo serama went broody late January & hatched her her eggs mid February. She didn’t lay again until the beginning of May . After that she laid quite sporadically for a few weeks & then started laying almost daily.

Agree the rough feathers could indicate some kind of deficiency… but outside of other symptoms your girls laying seems pretty normal for the breed.

What feed are you using? Maybe she needs more nutrients or sunlight?

Thanks!

Honestly, i would not be suprised. She had a pretty awful home before and was even worse then the original photo shown! She was depressed, isolated, and to make matters worse, i got her in winter! So she had to stay indoors. She was kept in a dark area for a while and i felt so bad. Thankfully, she has been outdoors thriving and will never be in a situation like that again.

It really aches my heart because she tries so hard to make friends, but simply doesn’t know how. She never had any (im pretty confident) and you can tell she tries, but just is bad at it and scares them off.

Not sunlight, outdoors like any other chicken for a very long while in her very own coop and some friends im trying to mix in with her.

Shoot, i always forget the brand. I’ll check tomorrow because its outside. She just has some scratch and normal feed (water + mash to) but for the brand, i’ll check tomorrow.

I know that she does eat a lot of baby food. (Not on purpose, obviously!) I have some younger chickens and she is sneaking in eating their food. She always somehow breaks in, so i’ll keep trying to keep her out.

 

[SilverBirds]

Thanks!

Honestly, i would not be suprised. She had a pretty awful home before and was even worse then the original photo shown! She was depressed, isolated, and to make matters worse, i got her in winter! So she had to stay indoors. She was kept in a dark area for a while and i felt so bad. Thankfully, she has been outdoors thriving and will never be in a situation like that again.

It really aches my heart because she tries so hard to make friends, but simply doesn’t know how. She never had any (im pretty confident) and you can tell she tries, but just is bad at it and scares them off.

Not sunlight, outdoors like any other chicken for a very long while in her very own coop and some friends im trying to mix in with her.

Shoot, i always forget the brand. I’ll check tomorrow because its outside. She just has some scratch and normal feed (water + mash to) but for the brand, i’ll check tomorrow.

I know that she does eat a lot of baby food. (Not on purpose, obviously!) I have some younger chickens and she is sneaking in eating their food. She always somehow breaks in, so i’ll keep trying to keep her out.

Poor girly. Hopefully she'll be able to build on her social skills.

Also, the above bird is not frizzled.

 

[Dinoroar]

Thanks!

Honestly, i would not be suprised. She had a pretty awful home before and was even worse then the original photo shown! She was depressed, isolated, and to make matters worse, i got her in winter! So she had to stay indoors. She was kept in a dark area for a while and i felt so bad. Thankfully, she has been outdoors thriving and will never be in a situation like that again.

It really aches my heart because she tries so hard to make friends, but simply doesn’t know how. She never had any (im pretty confident) and you can tell she tries, but just is bad at it and scares them off.

Not sunlight, outdoors like any other chicken for a very long while in her very own coop and some friends im trying to mix in with her.

Shoot, i always forget the brand. I’ll check tomorrow because its outside. She just has some scratch and normal feed (water + mash to) but for the brand, i’ll check tomorrow.

I know that she does eat a lot of baby food. (Not on purpose, obviously!) I have some younger chickens and she is sneaking in eating their food. She always somehow breaks in, so i’ll keep trying to keep her out.

If it were my bird I’d try putting her on a high protein feather fixer or game bird feed fir a bit. & or supplementing with egg yolks and rooster booster. Seems likely vitamin d could be an issue if she’s had long stretches without enough light exposure.

The chick feed actually shouldn’t be a problem for her and I’d be more concerned about keeper her off of scratch. She shouldn’t really need layer feed at the moment as if she’s not laying consistently she isn’t going to be using up all that calcium.

 

[Chicken poppy]

If it were my bird I’d try putting her on a high protein feather fixer or game bird feed fir a bit. & or supplementing with egg yolks and rooster booster. Seems likely vitamin d could be an issue if she’s had long stretches without enough light exposure.

The chick feed actually shouldn’t be a problem for her and I’d be more concerned about keeper her off of scratch. She shouldn’t really need layer feed at the moment as if she’s not laying consistently she isn’t going to be using up all that calcium.

I seriously appreciate this!

Honestly, i don’t even think she eats any scratch to be honest. She just likes digging in it. Occasionally, maybe a little. But i see her dig out some sunflower seeds and thats it.

I am the worst with feed.