CND Posted January 1, 2016 Share Posted January 1, 2016 Our head hen is a loud girl who lays happily and always in the nest box. A couple of days ago she suddenly 'laid' just where she stood, rapidly firing out the egg along with some gelatinous clear liquid. She was shaking afterwards and stood around very quietly her head and wings drooping. A few hours later she seemed to have recovered and has been fine ever since. We've three hens and had noticed we are down from our usual 3 a day eggs to 2 but nothing else seemed different and she herself seemed okay. My question is was she egg bound, and if so is it likely to happen again) or does this sound like something else? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beantree Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 Welcome to the forum CND. Sounds like she laid a 'softy', which is an egg with no shell. Laying them seems to be a very uncomfortable experience for hens, presumably because they are unable to manoeuvre them in the oviduct to lay as normal. They are often laid at the end or beginning of a laying period. We have two laid them and both are now laying fine so there shouldn't be any long term effects on your head hen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CND Posted January 3, 2016 Author Share Posted January 3, 2016 Thanks Beantree! It did seem to have a normal shell, although it was accompanied by a lot of what could be described as 'white'. She's such a noisy chuck and she's back in full voice so I'm hoping, as you say, there is no permanent issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
