drliz Posted May 25, 2010 Share Posted May 25, 2010 Ok, bit of a story to this, so bear with me... i've had my 3 Chooks for nearly 2 years now, normally get 3 eggs per day but to be honest they hadn't been that consistant for a while since the cold weather, but by mid April we were back to at least 2 per day, and they all lay quite distinctive eggs, so i was fairly sure we were getting 3-4 a week out of each lady. Went on holiday for a week, usual neighbour looked after them, no apparent problems. A week after we got back i realised Fuggles, our Amber Star, hadn't laid for a week. And her back end had started to look manky. She seemed fine in herself, eating, perky etc so assumed it was just "white chicken in muddy garden" syndrome! (she's had this for a while - she is the main cause of angst in my lawn proud husband!!) But another week went by, still no eggs - and we're now getting one a day from each of the others. And her vent was now looking red & dribbling white liquid, although Fuggles still eating & running around ok. So off to vets, thinking she's egg bound. She wasn't, but he thought it was an infection, gave her antibiotics, and after a week of farcical trying to persuade her to eat weetabix with antiB on it, whilst stopping the others grabbing it, Vent was looking much healthier, and generally all back to normal. This was 10 days ago now. BUT still no eggs from fuggles, although getting one a day from each of the others still. But I wasn't that worried, just assumed she was recovering. All the manky feathers have fallen out so she's got a really dafft looking bald bum, but doesn't stop her doing normal stuff - digging holes in lawn, chasing my toddler (seen as source of bread crusts by all 3), etc. And now comes the mystery... We'd had a big bag of lawn mowings & weeds at the bottem of the garden, waiting to go to the dump. On sunday, we got round to loading it into the car - and to our suprise an egg fell out - and closer inspection revealed 6 more eggs! They look like Fuggles', and they were all quite fresh when i put them in a jug of water (sank to the bottom, no problem, & now all eaten - Yum!) so assume she's laid them in the last week or 2 So she clearly hasn't been off lay, just hiding her eggs... So i'm after advice about how to stop her hiding the eggs!! I tried keeping them in the run yesterday, which isn't unusual 2-3 times a week anyway, but no egg yesterday. Apart from confining them to the run until she gets the message, any other tips on how to stop them laying away? And how long can a chicken cross their legs & hang onto a egg if they really want to hide the egg? I don't think she's broody - showing no signs of sitting. Thoughts please!! Cheers Liz PS sorry about the essay... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwing Posted May 25, 2010 Share Posted May 25, 2010 I'm not sure if they can retain and egg on purpose, the egg tales about 24 hours to travel down the system so if she didnt have one in her system thats why she didnt lay one I'd confine her to the run at least till after lunch each day A few spare (marked) eggs or fake eggs left in the nest box should re-boot her Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
