weird eggs, molting or sick???

[ranchhand]

Conny, everything Wynette said and then some. I posted a link to poop pics in your other thread, it's a very handy reference page.

Here it is again.

http://chat.allotment.org.uk/index.php?topic=17568.0

Very sorry about your hen.

 

[newhenstein castle]

OMG! She was in her nest box, what??? I picked her up to find a cracked egg.

I went inside to wash her feathers and found that she doesn't have feathers on her belly anymore!! IS SHE MOLTING? I've heard of really long and hard molts that take 2 months. Would that save her from the ax???

 

[Wynette]

No, I think she's trying to be broody. They will pick the feathers clean off their chest & underside to contact the eggs when they are going broody.

 

[newhenstein castle]

WHAT? That is too weird. She is not in the box like the other hen that went broody a while back. This one isn't trying to sit. Are you sure it can't be molting? I just keep hoping that that is the issue. That's it I am frying up her poop to see if it is indeed egg white....

 

[newhenstein castle]

I DID take some of the whiteish substance and (gosh why didn't I think about putting it in hot water?!) fried it. It DOESN'T seem to be egg white as I thought! And if you check on the pictures of her tummy there are feathers missing. Her sides are completely naked. Mind you I am a newer chicken owner and haven't seen a hen in molt before. So I checked on the others and sure enough they are showing the same nakedness, except for one. Now please y'all just tell me that they are going through an early molt (not November like I would have thought???).

Lorelei seems to be doing dandy now. I don't think she needs meds as of yet. She did lay a soft shelled egg earlier and I wonder even IF she layed internally and the white stuff WAS egg, would she have passed the missing shell by pushing out the egg from today???

So for all of you who know where chickens loose feathers during molt, will they lose them on their belly? And will the molt in summer?

 

[Wynette]

I had a RIR molt about a month ago, but none of my others have molted yet, and I have quite a few chickens. I've not seen a molt look like this - Lorelei is picked CLEAN, and that's unusual for molt.

 

[Pelican49]

Wynette or any other wise chicken keeper.... In your posting picture of a group of eggs, what breed lays those pretty almost dark red eggs?

 

[Wynette]

Pelican - those are from Marans.

 

[PepsNick]

I'm so sorry Cony! I'm glad you're giving it a little more time! I miss so much when I go out of town! Are the others as BARE as she is?
And to me that cracked egg kind of looks eaten, wynette?

 

[Wynette]

No, I don't think that egg had been eaten - if they eat eggs, the yolk is the yummiest part - there's usually no yellow left at all when they eat. It's been awhile since we heard anything....how's our girl doing?