What happened to my hen?

[wolftracks]

I came home from going for bird supplies and one of my FBCM hens was laying in the run. She looked like she was asleep but when I went to put my hand on her back she didn't move. I don't know what happened and I've been checking birds to see if I need to dust them this week, so I've picked them all up the past few days. No signs of any problems with ther vent, but it looked worse than a prolapse. Everything was out and it was purple and bloody looking. I just got an egg from her on thursday.

What could this be from? This was my tag along. Alway had to make sure I was doing everything alright.

I'm not getting any of these to hatch. The chicks are so big in the shells and they will pip and die or zip and died. I don't want to lose another one. I haven't been able to replace these older hens with pullets.

 

[TwoCrows]

I don't know what happened or why. Sometimes if hens lay too large of an egg, the vent will prolapse. And other times if the hen is younger and not fully developed yet, she can have egg laying trouble. I am so sorry to hear about your hen.

If your chicks are getting to the pip stage and dying in the eggs, sounds like your humidity is too low at hatch time. At the time of stopping the egg turning, always up the humidity by 10% so that the chicks will not stick to the shell. Do not open the incubator until all of them have hatched and are dried off. They can stay in the incubator for 24 hours if need be. Good luck.

 

[birdlover]

I'm so sorry to read about your troubles. If my teflon brain remembers correctly, chicks can also die in the shell by drowning if the humidity is too high. Correct me if I'm wrong, somebody.

 

[TwoCrows]

Quote:
This is very true. But if the humidity was too high, normally they wouldn't even make it to pip stage, which wolftracks says is happening. So it sounds like low humidity to me. Chicks pipping, and getting stuck in the shell. Drowning chicks would not pip.

 

[wolftracks]

She was an older hen. About 4 or a little older.

The FBCMs are the main ones I'm having trouble with. Everyone is getting the same thing every day, but the other breeds are hatching with none to little problem. I have a hatch going on right now and theres a bantam Wellie pipped and one of my Marans x Game. I only have 2 FBCM eggs in there. The others quit. I also locked down another hatch, but I didn't candle. I sanded the shells on that hatch, to see if it would help. We'll see.

 

[wolftracks]

Oh and the hen that died laid the biggest, darkest and roundest egg.

 

[TwoCrows]

Quote:
Good luck with your hatching! And about your hen, yeah, that egg was way too big for her to pass without her innards coming out. So sorry.

 

[wolftracks]

Thing is she's always laid big eggs. I have also found 2 soft shelled eggs this week. Not hers. I checked everyone and nothing seems to be wrong with any of them, but then she looked fine until I found her too.