How can I find my old pictures?

[Narf]

Hi everyone,

I have 5 girls that were all POL when I purchased them at the end of May. They all began laying and laying well, one egg per day. My one lovely girl had huge difficulty laying her first egg ( I was so worried that she was unwell, I stayed in the coop all day watching her!), but then laid a usual sized egg every other day.

The hot weather came and the field next to their coop was cut and bobbed and baled for hay, so lots of coming and going and since then, she has not laid an egg. It is now about 3 and half weeks. I have sat and watched her and she eats and drinks well, her droppings are all normal and she is perky. She is definitely bottom of the pecking order, but isn't bullied. I have examined her and she has normal weight. Her comb looks a little dry, but other than that, she appears fine. The whole group were wormed a month and a half ago and she did lay after this.

The four other ladies have continued laying throughout, despite the heat and tractors!  Do I just need to wait? I am not concerned about not having eggs from her, I am worried that I am missing something.

Any advice gratefully received.

[Beantree]

My guess is that she simply doesn't feel secure enough to lay. Being lowest in the pecking order is going to make her nervous, but with the heat and noise on top that's possibly put her off. She sounds healthy enough so my advice is just wait. The deep rooted instinct is that they are laying eggs to eventually hatch, though fortunately most of them don't try. They will therefore, in theory, only lay in a secure environment. Obviously this instinct has been suppressed by breeding, hence battery hens laying in those disgraceful conditions. But there will be the occasional hen who is still true to her ancestry. She sounds very sweet and another guess is that if any do go broody she will be one of them.

[Narf]

Thank you so much for this. Everything you have said makes perfect sense. She is very sweet and a very friendly, loving bird. I will wait and hope that she begins to feel happier and more secure soon. ( I hope it is soon as I want to enter her eggs for our local village show as they are so beautiful!)

 

Thank you again.

[mullethunter]

I would think that she’s just stopped laying and is about to moult. That was also explain the ‘dry’ comb.

[Beantree]

Certainly does sound like the start of a moult @mullethunter, but she would have to be older than the others because they don't moult in their first year. It is possible that the breeder slipped in an older one because, with the movement restrictions from Covid and Avian Flu it is possible that they had been unable to sell all their older stock.

Did she have a redder comb than the others when you bought them @Narf? Did you get an egg much earlier than all the others?

[Cat tails]

I’ve had chickens moult in their first year. They can do a mini moult.

[Narf]

When I bought the hens, the hen in question , her comb was the same size as the others and I didn't notice that it was any redder. Now, her comb is much smaller than the other girls. 

She laid her first egg before one of the others, but after  the other three( I hope that makes sense!)

 

[Beantree]

So she's the same age I would say. You haven't mentioned finding feathers or noticing she has lost any from her neck (because the small feathers are sometimes eaten). The smaller comb goes with not laying for an extended period, so really I'm at a loss, because the effects of heat and noise would only be short term. You can only wait and see.