Lazy Legbar

[Mrs Brewster]

I have a legber which is coming out of her moult. She is just starting to get feathers back now.

Her laying has been a bit erratic (which i know is normal), but it would seem she doesn't want to lay in the nest, she has done in the past, but last few weeks i have found a few broken eggs in the house.

She will lay at night on the perches, right next to the nest ( i have an Eglu cube) inside the run and even on the grass. They are only allowed to free range at the end of the day when i'm home from work.

The stranger thing is once she has laid, she goes to the nest and sits there waiting for something to happen?? :? i thought it might still to do with the moult confusing her, but i'm not sure.

Stumped....anyone any ideas how i can get her back into the nest 19

 

[chrismahon]

Sounds like she is a bit stressed for some reason, probably the moult. We have eggs drop in the night and the hen then goes in to lay in the nestbox in the morning. In our case its probably a predator sniffing around the coop -two legs or four! In my experience some Legbars are highly strung creatures, although we have one that's really laid back.

Doesn't sound like there is much you can do at the moment Mrs Brewster except help with the moult. For that she needs extra protein which you can get from mealworms, maggots, sunflower hearts (de-shelled) and mashed egg.

 

[Mrs Brewster]

She was fine before the moult but seem all over the place since.

I have just tried mealworms with and they love them!! So I'll keep up with that. Should I be careful not to over do it?? Ie use like normal treats??

 

[chrismahon]

During the moult I'd give them a few every day as a treat. Just a little protein boost to help them along but not enough to upset them. They eat 100 -150 grammes of pellets a day which is 15% protein. As mealworms are (I seem to remember from a post about rearing them) 40% protein to get them to about 20% overall you give them about 15 grammes or half an ounce of mealworms each. That small increase will make all the difference. We give ours maggots from the fishing shop but they can harbour some nasty diseases so we've stopped, although never had any problems.