You'll know if your girl is egg-bound. She will be in pain and won't be acting well. They usually go mute, hang out near a fence or wall, facing inward, holding their tail down and flat. They won't eat and they don't want to join the flock.
If she's behaving normally, she may be having trouble assimilating the calcium in her diet, even though oyster shell is available.
I read a post on this forum last week about giving a hen who lays shell-less eggs people calcium, such as Caltrate. It has additional minerals and vitamins in it that oyster shell is lacking. I have a seven-year old GLW hen who is still laying, bless her heart, but every single egg gets passed early in the morning from her perch and it always lacks a shell.
So I decided to try the Caltrate. I've been giving her a half a pill each day broken further into quarters and it was suggested by the poster that it be wrapped in raisins. So I've been giving her the two quarter-pills wrapped in raisins each morning for the past five days, and two days ago, she laid an egg with a very thin shell! It broke, of course, but it was an improvement. I kept giving her the calcium pills, and today, she was in the nest for about an hour and she laid a perfect egg with a complete shell! So the Caltrate therapy really does work! I was expecting no improvement since she's so old, but the old girl sure surprised me!
It was also stressed that once the eggs begin to have calcium deposits on the shell, to discontinue the Caltrate at that point. Too much calcium should be avoided.
It can't hurt to try this with your hen. If she's egg-bound, there's not much that can be done for her. But if she happens to get back on the nest again and sits and sits without producing an egg, you might try a warm water soak or do what I do with a six-year old Black Cochin who lays regularly but has trouble getting her egg out.
When I see that Mo has been sitting on the nest for over an hour, I take her up and bring her into the garage where I have a dog crate set up in a quiet corner. I put a heating pad inside sandwiched between two towels and turn it on medium heat. Then I place her inside on the towels for about and hour. This always works. Today, she laid the egg right there in the crate, but most of the time, it's not until the next day that she is able to lay her egg.
So, there you are. Two things to try. I sure to hope she's not egg bound and she starts laying again soon. Please keep us posted.
