Being a chicken keeper is always rewarding and often adventurous as well! Seems like everyday I am learning new things and experiencing new things about and with chickens. It’s a constant learning experience, even when you think you’ve heard or seen it all.
Here is my latest adventure and learning experience:
Last night I noticed that “Grace” my 1 year old Delaware was acting kind of stand offish/listless. She is normally my shadow, she comes running to greet me the second she hears the doorwall open and my footsteps on the deck. She’s always the one under my feet waiting, full of curiosity to see what kind of treat I may have for her, but not last night. She was otherwise normal. No sneezing or wheezing, no signs of injury or sickness at all! What could be wrong with her I wondered. After a few minutes of close observations and examinations I concluded she must be egg bound. I’ve seen this before with one of my other hens when she first started laying. So I began treatment. I brought her into the house, carefully carrying her as not to break the egg stuck inside her and gave her a warm bath for 20 minutes. She really didn’t mind the bath at all, she even laid in it willingly. If you own chickens you know they don’t particularly like water for any reason other than drinking. After 20 minutes I carefully carried her back out to the run and put her in a dog crate to give her her privacy and let her rest. 20 minutes later I went back out to check on her and found this (see picture) a “rubber egg!” Sure enough, she was egg bound! “Rubber eggs” are called this because they actually feel kind of like rubber. They have a very soft shell. So why did this happen to my already established laying hen? Could be a couple things. More times than not when chickens eggs are soft shelled it’s for 1 of 2 reasons. 1 being that the chicken can be a new layer and her system is still adjusting to the job of egg production and laying. OR it could be because she has a calcium deficiency. To prevent this, you should always offer your girls free choice crushed oyster shell, which I always have out for them, but sometimes there will be 1 stubborn/picky girl who won’t eat it. This appears to be the issue with “Grace.” However, she is a large breed chicken and doesn’t seem to tolerate the heat well and it has been blazing hot here lately with temps in the high 90’s even up to 102 degrees. If you know chickens, you know that they can actually stop laying when the temps rise that high. I think “Grace’s” condition is contributed to the heat and the stress she was under being so over heated despite my efforts to keep her cool and comfortable. Since she can’t speak to me, I’ll never really know.
If you have a hen who won’t eat the oyster shell, another alternative would be to offer crushed egg shells. I simply save my egg shells, peel out the internal membrane, let dry out for a few days then put in the microwave for a couple minutes to kill any bacteria. I then put the shells in a coffee grinder and offer it free choice to the girls. Another method you could use is liquid calcium added to their water which I had never heard of before until I asked another fellow chicken keeper (https://www.facebook.com/Egg.Carton.Labels.by.ADozenGirlz) if she thought there could be more than 1 egg stuck, because even though “Grace” laid her rubber egg, she was still acting like she had another still stuck, so she is still in isolation until she lays another egg or starts acting like herself again. I will keep you updated on her situation.
“Rubber Egg” (soft shelled egg)