Not laying - advice please.

[Lucylou]

Does anyone have any ideas on this?

My 'very healthy looking' black maran, has stopped laying. She started after the moult & was up to about 4 eggs a week but hasn't laid for over a week now. As I've only 3 chooks now its easy to tell who lays what! What worries me is that I had another maran from the same breeder that died from being egg bound last year & I'm worried it might be the same thing.

She's still eating normally, her feathers are lovely & glossy, bright eyes, red comb, the only possible sign that something isn't right is that she seems to have a slightly messy bum but nothing major.

I've looked at the advice & suggestions on the Health pages link & looked up various books & apart from mites I can't find any other suggestions.

I know that if she's egg bound there's not much hope except I've heard of people breaking the egg inside the cavity & the chook then expels it. Does anyone know how I can tell if it is this? Or any other suggestions of things I should look for. I'm trying to remember exactly what happened with my last one, & I've got a funny feeling she also went down slowly till the end then went downhill within 2/3 days.

 

[chrismahon]

Hi Lucylou. With egg bound it is important to try not to break the egg. You can tell if she is because she will be in the nest box constantly trying to lay. The egg may be visible and we smeared olive oil inside her vent for extra lubrication. The egg broke, but I made sure there were no bits in her then fingers crossed she hadn't got cut by shell and developed an infection. Wev'e just had one last week that brioke the egg on delivery. She had a messy bottom and the egg contents were in the nest box. Am just keeping an eye on her as she's been in to lay. Could develop to egg peritonitis, where egg slips out of the ovaduct and into the abdomen -obviously that's not curable. Check for a swollen abdomen (area below the vent forward to the legs), which might be large and firm. Large and flabby is OK (fat). Small and flabby is best condition.

 

[Lucylou]

Thanks Chris, I'll check her abdomen tomorrow. Now I think of it my other maran was diagnosed with egg peritonitis so I'm really hoping its not that.

 

[Chuck]

If she looks and acts that well, she doesn't sound ill. I wouldn't jump in to major illness here as she could just be having a few days rest. presuming the eggs are not being eaten or laid away from home or perhaps your expectations of her egg laying abilty are something she is not going to live up to ! Also what happened before could just be co-incidence. Assuming your hens are fed a sensible diet and are not overweight, which can lead to egg laying problems, Think all you can do is observe and wait for further signs.

 

[foxy]

I concur in this case with Chuck, although Chris has described an egg bound hen perfectly.
Observe her behaviour, especially watch out for restless behaviour and frequent visits to the nest box.

A cessation in egg laying is not uncommon, and can simply be due to a change in weather. I note that your hen is in her second season, so short breaks in egg laying will be perfectly normal.

Be careful with handling, if she does decide to lay you may damage the egg inside. Egg bound hens usually look pretty obvious, distress, restlessness, sometimes with pale comb. Looking at them the abdomen may look a bit distended possibly with a "waddling" gait.

 

[Marigold]

Well, this rang a bell or two with me. I've got an Amber Star hybrid, now 16 months old, which laid well last summer and stopped in about November, since when, no eggs at all. The other hybrid I got at the same time has kept going steadily with only one short break of about a fortnight in December. Neither of them have moulted. The non-laying one is in perfect health, large red comb, active, eating well, no parasites, not eggbound, all systems go, except egglaying. No worm problems - just finished Flubenvet, previous treatment 5 months ago. She's top hen as well. Any ideas, folks?

 

[Lucylou]

Marigold, mine is also top hen & seems well too. Haven't wormed them yet so will get onto that. She only had a short moult, didn't lose many feathers, (unlike my poor little Campine who looked more bald than a bald thing!!)

Since she started laying again after moulting she's been laying approx every other day or laying for 2 then resting for 2. Did search the run for a stash of eggs but absolutely nothing so she's not secretly laying somewhere else.

Maybe she's confused by this odd weather we're having, one day very warm & sunny next day blustery gales !! (a bit like me then :lol: )

 

[chrismahon]

We had Copper Stars which only gave us eggs for a year or so. Think they had just run out of eggs to give.