NewFlockOnTheBlock
Songster
One of our hens, Honey Pie, stopped laying a couple weeks ago (took me a while to notice). She is only about 8 months old, started laying 3 months ago and was laying regularly, i.e. every day or every other day, until she stopped. (She may have tapered off before stopping completely; unfortunately I wasn't paying enough attention.)
I haven't checked to see if she's egg bound but I don't think she is. She moves around normally and is eating and grazing in the yard. Her feathers look normal and there are no respiratory symptoms. I did notice that she is spending more time by herself than before, scratching around in the grass separately from the other chickens, and sometimes she won't come as quickly as the others when I bring out treats (she still runs towards me at full speed but it can take her a while to notice if she's off by herself). She is also less feisty than normal. Honey Pie had been the second-highest ranking hen in our flock, pushing the lowest-ranking hens around quite a bit. She does less of that now, which is great for the other hens, but is definitely not typical for her. She is less "engaged" in other ways too. For example, she used to come into the coop to see what I was doing whenever I went inside to collect eggs, and she'd often come check on the other hens when they were in their nest boxes; she no longer does this. She doesn't seem depressed per se, just sort of aloof. And, one last but probably important thing I noticed today is that her comb and wattles are a pale pink, not the bright red that indicates that a hen is laying or is about to start laying.
I tried to look up "no eggs" in Gail Damerow's Chicken Health Book and the diagnostic guide includes 5 conditions: cage fatigue, colibacillosis, Newcastle (exotic), gout (visceral), and infectious bronchitis. A couple of these are listed as "rare" or "not common," plus the other symptoms don't really match. So, what do you all think?
I haven't checked to see if she's egg bound but I don't think she is. She moves around normally and is eating and grazing in the yard. Her feathers look normal and there are no respiratory symptoms. I did notice that she is spending more time by herself than before, scratching around in the grass separately from the other chickens, and sometimes she won't come as quickly as the others when I bring out treats (she still runs towards me at full speed but it can take her a while to notice if she's off by herself). She is also less feisty than normal. Honey Pie had been the second-highest ranking hen in our flock, pushing the lowest-ranking hens around quite a bit. She does less of that now, which is great for the other hens, but is definitely not typical for her. She is less "engaged" in other ways too. For example, she used to come into the coop to see what I was doing whenever I went inside to collect eggs, and she'd often come check on the other hens when they were in their nest boxes; she no longer does this. She doesn't seem depressed per se, just sort of aloof. And, one last but probably important thing I noticed today is that her comb and wattles are a pale pink, not the bright red that indicates that a hen is laying or is about to start laying.
I tried to look up "no eggs" in Gail Damerow's Chicken Health Book and the diagnostic guide includes 5 conditions: cage fatigue, colibacillosis, Newcastle (exotic), gout (visceral), and infectious bronchitis. A couple of these are listed as "rare" or "not common," plus the other symptoms don't really match. So, what do you all think?
