Solitary chicken - need advice

[sheik]

Flumpy is a speckledy hybrid, less than a year old. She laid 5-6 eggs a week all the way through last summer, then went into a mini-moult in October and hasn't laid an egg since.

 

Although we are missing her eggs, our real concern is for her health - is it a problem if she's not laying?

 

Having said that, she appears to be an extremely healthy chicken. Her comb is full, she is very curious, always on the scrounge for food and generally seems very happy. The only thing I'd say is that she seems to me (a layperson) that she's quite plump, but this is apparently a breed trait.

 

She is locked in her run until noon every day, where all she can eat is organic pellets. There is grit in the run, and our other hens all lay fine on the same diet.

After noon, she free-ranges in the garden, eating grass, worms etc. We don't feed many treats in the summer, but most days will see her eat a small amount of boiled rice or corn, along with the other three hens.

 

I spoke to Thorne's and they said it is *very* unusual for a hybrid to stop laying like this, especially as she is so young. They did say that occasionally a chicken's hormones can get a bit messed up after a moult, and suggested the next time she moults it might snap her back into laying again. They also said there are chemical ways of inducing a chicken into moult, but they wouldn't recommend it and we didn't like the sound of such extreme measures either.

 

So, has anyone else experienced anything like this?

 

Here are some recent pics:

 

 

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[sheik]

I forgot to add, every few weeks or so, she will go and sit on the nest for a bit, but nothing ever appears.

There is also no way she can be laying elsewhere in the garden, as we've searched and she is confined to the run enough that we'd be bound to spot an egg over a period of months.

 

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[feemcg]

She looks like an old dear to me.....certainly a lot older than a year. Was she laying when you got her......if so I think the breeder has sold you an older hen.

[sheik]

She looks like an old dear to me.....certainly a lot older than a year. Was she laying when you got her......if so I think the breeder has sold you an older hen.

 

Thanks for the reply, but she was definitely a pullet when we got her. She took a good few weeks to start laying, and had no comb. Here is a pic of her in April 2008:

 

[OK, I've just realised that makes her over a year old, I got my dates wrong! However, she laid for less than a year and then stopped I guess is the point]

 

 

Does she look unusually old to anyone else in the current photos in the first message?

 

 

 

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[feemcg]

Right enough......so she's probably about a year and a half old. She looks older. I looked back at pics of my Speckledy and she looks like Jasmin when she was about 2. Problem is with Hybrids that sometimes you only get one 'good' laying year before they start to decline....hence why battery hens are disposed of after that

[sheik]

Yes, I've heard that about hybrids, but my understanding is that the egg frequency just tails off a bit - a complete halt to all egg production in a young hen is apparently very rare.

 

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[LaPoule]

I'm afraid I can't offer any constructive advice at all, but I wanted to say I love the middle photo of Flumpy, where she's looking straight at the camera! It's a fabulous photo - I hope you don't mind, but I've set it as my desktop

[Budgies]

She's a gorgeous girl!

 

I've never heard of a chicken not laying like that. The only thing I'd do is check between her legs and going up towards her vent. Does this feel as though she's carrying fluid? My one fear would be that she's still laying egg yolks internally and that they're going astray - known as egg yolk peritonitis.

[cluckbok]

Hi ya,

 

Our Speckledy only laid twice since we got her and we've had her well over 15mths! She's plump too and she goes and sits on the eggs that the others have laid for a short while then comes back out again. She was supposed to be a younger hen when we got her but compared to the others her comb was really well developed. We think the breeder knew she wasn't laying very well and was older than what he said she was. We are used to her now though, she's here to stay You can't do anything with her, no stroking or cuddling cause she just runs off.

[sheik]

I'm afraid I can't offer any constructive advice at all, but I wanted to say I love the middle photo of Flumpy, where she's looking straight at the camera! It's a fabulous photo - I hope you don't mind, but I've set it as my desktop

 

Hee hee, I liked that photo too. It was taken with a big lensed SLR, which the others are quite frightened of but she is just curious.

 

Here is the full sized image for your desktop (for best results resize it to the correct size for your screen) : http://www.st-neots.co.uk/images/chickens/flumpy_april_2009_2_large.jpg

 

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[Redwing]

Perhaps she is not laying because she is a bit plump? in saying that I am not sure how you would put just her on a diet!

[LaPoule]

Fabulous - the clarity is amazing. Thanks for the link to the better photo. What camera and lens did you use (I know, sorry, going very off topic here... )

[Egluntyne]

I love the second picture of her.

 

Has she been wormed, and checked over for external parasites? They can impact on the hen's laying.

[sheik]

Yes, one of Frank from Thorne's first questions was "is she big?" Speckledys are apparently prone to getting plump and being poor layers. Again though, it's not usual for them to stop laying altogether.

I don't think either myself or my wife are very qualified to prod about between the poor girl's legs! We'd take her to a vet if the consensus is that it could be helpful though.

 

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[sheik]

Fabulous - the clarity is amazing. Thanks for the link to the better photo. What camera and lens did you use (I know, sorry, going very off topic here... )

 

Heh, no problem. It's a Canon Eos 450D, using the standard lens that comes with it. I was playing around with trying to shoot a subject from very close with a wide angle lens. If you've ever seen one of those funny dog photos where the nose and snout is massive and elongated compared to the body, that is how they do it. My lens only goes to 18mm though, so the effect isn't very pronounced with my effort.

 

At some point I'll buy a wideangle lens and annoy you all by posting silly pictures of massively- beaked chickens .

 

I've also got the Canon 70mm-300mm zoom lens with image stabilisation that makes wildlife photography far too easy - you just zoom right in, set the camera to "sports" mode and click away. That's how I took some of the photos at the top of this page (which make excellent desktop backgrounds full size): http://www.thornespoultrycentre.co.uk/bantams.html

 

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[sheik]

Has she been wormed, and checked over for external parasites? They can impact on the hen's laying.

 

Hi Egluntine,

We pick her up regularly and haven't noticed anything amiss. We wormed them all with flubenvet(?) a few months ago (partly because we were worried about Flumpy not laying), and they get those verminex(?) pellets too (which I don't rate by the way, and neither do our chickens).

 

I might phone a vet that knows about chickens and see if they recommend bringing her in.

 

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[meezers]

I have a chook exactly the same - it's been months since I had a 6 egg day from my original girls. I couldn't work out if it was the warren or Bluebelle not laying, but am pretty certain now that it's the Bluebelle- she does go into the nest box most days , will sit for a while, then squawk, but never lays anything !

She was POL march 08, so is about 18 months old, layed well last year, is happy and healthy, no parasites , has been wormed etc etc, I think she has just layed her alloted number of eggs.

[Budgies]

I don't think either myself or my wife are very qualified to prod about between the poor girl's legs!

 

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You make me laugh saying that!

 

I'm not suggesting you get too intimate, If you handle her though, just gently touch her behind her legs on the outside where her soft underfluff is. You'll soon know if she's fat with liquid.

 

If she is, she'll probably need a vet.

 

I wouldn't put her through the stress of a visit to the vet unnecessarily.

[Florence]

We also have a speckledy who is exactely like this in fact I could almost have written your post myself.Ours has recently laid the odd softee but generally i just have her down as a bit moody!She used to be top hen but I am not so sure now , and now I'ver read this thread I wonder if she was a bit older than the others to start with.Anyway she doesn't seem unhappy so we just let her get on with it,interestingly she is the most tame though of the big hens and will almost always come for a cuddle.

[sheik]

Thanks Florence, maybe it is just a breed characteristic. Probably still uncommon though or everyone on here would know about it.

 

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[Olly]

My speckledy on the other hand, although about 3 years old, is the ONLY hen that's laying regularly! So it's not necessarily a breed characteristic.

 

My gingernuts who are only 2 and laid reliably even through the winter are now hit-and-miss, one is laying softies despite limestone flour in the feed, and most days I am lucky to get an egg at all out of them.

 

I think it's just luck to be honest. It's very frustrating though!

[..lay a little egg for me]

We also have a speckledy who is exactely like this in fact I could almost have written your post myself.Ours has recently laid the odd softee but generally i just have her down as a bit moody!She used to be top hen but I am not so sure now , and now I'ver read this thread I wonder if she was a bit older than the others to start with.Anyway she doesn't seem unhappy so we just let her get on with it,interestingly she is the most tame though of the big hens and will almost always come for a cuddle.

 

 

Gosh, we are having the same problem with our Speckledy now. I thought she was feeling a bit broody because she does go in and sit on the other girls' eggs but comes out again after a while. The other day when I went to get the eggs, she was in there sitting on 3 eggs and she pecked my hand as I extracted them, which is broody-type behaviour. She is also bigger than the other girls but healthy in every other way; still has a bright red comb, has been flubenvetted and checked for lice and swellings etc. We were getting an egg every day for her for almost a year before she stopped. I'm hoping that if she is feeling a bit broody, it will eventually wear off.

 

It would be useful if the other Speckledy owners having this problem would update this thread if theirs ever start laying again or if there is any other relevant news. I will try to remember to do so if Becky starts laying again.

[meezers]

It would be useful if the other Speckledy owners having this problem would update this thread if theirs ever start laying again or if there is any other relevant news. I will try to remember to do so if Becky starts laying again.

 

 

My speckledy stopped laying for a couple of months last year when she first went broody, and then had a moult, but she's been laying regularly since then - infact she's one of my best layers.

[Chickvic]

I don't have a speckledy but I have a chicken who laid for six months, moulted and now hasn't laid for 6 months. It's Ruby ( ) she's wormed with flubenvet regularly, no lice or mites, has lovely red comb and new feathers but no eggs I don't care in some ways because she is healthy and happy so I guess I'll just have to wait to see if she lays again. She was POL when we had them at the beginning of April but she was younger than Pearl and Opal. Never mind - perhaps when I get 2 new girls in the summer it will kick start her again

[chickeroo]

We have the exact same problem and she's a gingernut ranger POL August 08. Beefier than the others and not layed for three months, regular worming etc sometimes goes to sit in nestbox but nothing going on?!?!?!

must be an alien invasion ,they know how popular they are to earthlings and are slowly taking over!