should I induce a molt? — Chronic egg layer with egg laying issues

[poonam]

Hey folks

I have a 2 year old sebright who lays a ridiculous amount of eggs. She's a small bird, and she lays the most amount of eggs in the flock, about 5-6/week sometimes.

She is very healthy and active, except in the past month she's had a really hard time with egg laying. I think the excessive egg laying is catching up with her.

She's been straining a LOT while laying, and looks pretty unwell right before her egg laying (this is unusual for her) and has laid a good amount of shell-less and soft shelled eggs. Overall she's very perky and healthy, poops well, is vocal. But her issues are primarily during the process of egg laying.

I've already been through the process of figuring out if she has a diseases or sorts, and i really don't think so. I think it's likely that she has damaged her reproductory tract from the egg laying.

Anyway, i've been giving her a lot of extra calcium, and it seems to be helping her, but she keeps relapsing into soft shelled eggs, i think her body can't seem to catch up.

is it worth inducing a molt to give her system a break?

you can read more about her issues in the thread below. I closed the thread when i thought she had recovered, but she's back into laying soft eggs every 3-4 eggs.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...gg-laying-calcium-deficiency/10#post_11140103

 

[realsis]

that might be worth a try. I have a silkie that lays and lays like that and I also worry for her but she hasn't given any soft shell eggs yet thank God but I worry she lays too much. I understand your concern. how would you go about inducing a molt to give her a beak? you would not with hold her food or water because I don't think that would be very good for her. is there other ways that are kinder for the chicken to induce the molt?

 

[BlueMoon-N-Farm]

Go for it! It certainly wont hurt for her to take a break.

 

[poonam]

I was thinking about starting by reducing the amount of daylight hours that she receives. I don't think I'd do any starving, that doesn't seem like a productive way to help her while she's weak, but more rest (putting her to bed in a dark place earlier than the other hens, and letting her out later in the morning) might help.

how does that sound?

 

[ChickenPeep]

Hi, poonam,
I was interested in your thread when I saw that you were planning on inducing a molt in your chicken. Did you go through with it? If not, I think it would be a good idea. It would be really good for her to give her little body a chance to recover and refresh.
I was just wondering because I have a hen who desperately needs to molt. She has not molted in several years and her feathers are really ragged. I was thinking about trying to induce a molt but I wanted to see if anyone else had done it first.
I hope your girl gets better!