Chicken bald back

[wiganchooks]

Sorry, don't know whether this should be in the eggs, clinic or general section!

Wanted to see if anybody recognised this odd behaviour though...

 

KC (1 of my 3 ex-batts) has always been an irregular layer, she had a lot of problems when she arrived but is now fit and well and a really friendly character. Unlike the other two who are regular as clockwork and lay perfectly KC only tends to lay every other day, sometimes soft shelled eggs, sometimes ok ones.

 

I'm pretty sure she hasn't laid for 3 days at the moment (not unusual I guess) - but on two days she has gone into the nest box as if she wanted to lay, settled down, made all the right noises, then strutted out and carried on with the day happy as larry - BUT THERE'S NOTHING THERE!

 

There's no way she's laid a soft one and eaten it, the straw was bone dry both times.

I would think it was just habbit, and copying the others, but they had laid much earlier in the day and were out in the run both times.

 

Does this behaviour happen sometimes? She appears fine, is happy and eating, there's no discharge, and I can't feel any eggs stuck or detect any swelling. I was worried it might be an early sign of peritonitis, or egg binding. Or is she just laying imaginary eggs?!!?

 

Any thoughts, or suggestions of warning signs to look out for would be welcome!

 

Thanks

[The Dogmother]

Sometimes they do that when they are coming back into lay after the winter off, just like their very first egg. I wouldn't worry if she seems well otherwise.

[wiganchooks]

Thanks Claret

 

I found them hoovering up remains of a soft egg again this morning, which I'm 99% sure will have been from KC, so I'll get her back on the extra calcium and see if she can move back to actually laying hard eggs again!

 

I suspect her pretend lays the last few days might have been working on moving a softie along, but was odd as she acted as if had really laid one! She used to get very out of sorts when she had a soft egg, but I guess with being stronger now it might not be bothering her as much.

 

Certainly fine in herself so I shall have to stop puzzling over her!

[The Dogmother]

It propably was her then; it's a classic sign.

 

Limestone flour with a drop of cod liver oil will usually do the trick.

[wiganchooks]

Out of interest - where do people get limestone flour from?

 

When I give KC a calcium boost at the moment I just grind-down a little bit of a human Vit-D and calcium tablet. But something that is already in a powdered form would be great! (I take it the oil is to provide the Vit-D?)

[The Dogmother]

Any equine feed merchant will have it, the one i use is by NAF.

[sandyhas3chucks]

I just had a similar thing, but not for the 1st time.

she has been back n forth to the nest 3 days now.

However \i know this hen really well, and know a very perticular look in her eye, (too hard to describe) when she has either got a softee or a blockage.

So this moirning I knew it was time for another trip to the vet

She has started to lay ostrich eggs, the last whole egg was 118grams with a really thin shell, and leaked a bit before I weighed it.

The nest was a softee & I never saw a shell, but hoped she had moved it and eaten it.

However this was NOT the case.

The shell was blocking the nest egg, which had a thin shell, and took the vet only a few minutes really to help her shift it.

She is now sitting a bit fluffed up again, so I rather think there may be one or 2 backed up.

Glad your girl sorted herself out.

By the way she has limestone flour, crushed egg shells, and nutrabol daily (not all at the same time) and still does this, but as she is also my can be "over producer" one egg a day is good, just wish we coud consistently get real shells.

The others are all fine!

[The Dogmother]

If you get a hen which ocnsistently produces dodgy eggs, then it's worth taking her off layers feed and giving her a wheat mix in an effort to get hter to lay less. The strain is sometimes just too much for them.

[wiganchooks]

Thanks Sandy & Claret.

 

I thought about taking her off the laying feed (she's on the ex-batt crumb) to give her a break but I can't figure out any way of doing that in my current set up, and I don't want to separate the 3 of them up.

 

Whilst she is so strong in herself and not being bothered by the softies I'll just leave her be I think. (With extra calcium of course, but it doesn't have much affect on her - the dosage is ok tho as I gave some to the others for a day or 2 in the autumn as a kind of experiment and got really hard white mottled eggs in return!!)

[Christian]

You can buy small amounts of limestone flour on ebay - reptile section.

[The Dogmother]

Thanks Sandy & Claret.

 

I thought about taking her off the laying feed (she's on the ex-batt crumb) to give her a break but I can't figure out any way of doing that in my current set up, and I don't want to separate the 3 of them up

 

Interesting that she's on the ex-batt crumbs - I tried my girls on it, out of curiousity more than anything else - they loved it but some of them started laying softies, this stopped when I stopped feeding them the ex-batt crumbs, or cut it in with my usual feed.

[sandyhas3chucks]

Yes there has been a lot of people saying that.

NUTROBOL is a really good supplement, yu culd feed it directly on some treats to the affected girl.

zolcal D is another one.

Nutrabl had D£ AND phosphorous added

Wish taking them off lay WAS easy, a friend had 9 and was told to keep them on mixed corn always.

! year 6 months later she discovers "layers" but had never had a problem, they all layed on the mixed corn diet, no problems

[wiganchooks]

Hmmmm. That's interesting (re softies and ex-batt crumb).

 

They have all refeathered now and plumped up and are very happy but I've been sticking with the crumb as they love it and a small donation from each bag goes to the BHWT.

 

Maybe I'll try them on some other type though. Do you have any recommendations for a different crumb that would still have all the nutrients and benefits that the ex-batt crumb claims to have?

[The Dogmother]

I feed my girls on either Smallholder pellets or Garvo layers mash; they like both equally and seem to thrive on them.

[sandyhas3chucks]

mine are on organic mash, they like it best also