Chicken Question
- Thread starter dewdropsinwv
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MontyJ
Deeply Rooted
Beekissed
Garden Master
What's even funnier is the fact that, if they don't already have an actual chicken "lip" stick, one could market such a thing for that exact price and folks would pay for it. Seriously. Folks spend scads of money on stupid things for chickens and that is definitely an item they would buy.
thistlebloom
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What! You mean Bay is joking around??
tears up check....
tears up check....
Beekissed
Garden Master
buckabucka
Garden Addicted
Have you ever wormed your chickens? I had a few acting sluggish this spring and not laying. Worming fixed the problem for me, but mine are more than two years old.
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dewdropsinwv
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@buckabucka No signs of worms with them they are healthy and acting fine....if I could only FIND these eggs.... 
so lucky
Garden Master
Next time you have a day off to spend outside, try to listen for the different egg songs. That may help you learn how many eggs are being laid. Not fool proof, of course, but another tool to use.
Might be helpful, and pleasant, to spend a day outside with a good book or hand sewing, in the shade within site of the chicken house and run. Just to be able to see and hear what is happening when.
Inside my house, with the TV on, I don't even hear when my chickens are being mauled by roaming dogs.
Might be helpful, and pleasant, to spend a day outside with a good book or hand sewing, in the shade within site of the chicken house and run. Just to be able to see and hear what is happening when.
Inside my house, with the TV on, I don't even hear when my chickens are being mauled by roaming dogs.
Beekissed
Garden Master
Or you can do the butt check thing and solve the whole mystery of who is laying and who is not....
Ridgerunner
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I agree that Bee's method is the most sure and the simplest. While a hen with a dry tight vent is not laying for sure, practically everything else I suggested is more of an indication, not a sure thing.
When a yolk is released it takes the egg about 25 hours, give or take, to go through the hen's internal egg making factory. The last 18 to 20 hours of this process is spent in the shell gland, right next to the vent. Some egg white is added here but most of this time is spent adding the shell material. That shell material is hard. You can feel it.
Bee's a nurse so you know she has to have delicate fingers. But using a surgical glove, some KY jelly, and not being a rough brute so you break the shell (or even if you crack it, it will heal, it will just look funny when it comes out) you can tell by feel which hen should lay the next day. You might need to do it a few nights in a row to get a complete picture. Even a good layer takes a day off every now and then. Bee did I get most of that right? It's your procedure.
With the trap nest you need to see the hen and the egg. Just seeing the hen in there by herself is not enough. I've seen plenty of hens enter a nest and not lay an egg. Sometimes they are waiting for neither nest to open up, sometimes they don't even lay that day. Seeing a hen in a nest is not a guarantee she is actually laying.
When a yolk is released it takes the egg about 25 hours, give or take, to go through the hen's internal egg making factory. The last 18 to 20 hours of this process is spent in the shell gland, right next to the vent. Some egg white is added here but most of this time is spent adding the shell material. That shell material is hard. You can feel it.
Bee's a nurse so you know she has to have delicate fingers. But using a surgical glove, some KY jelly, and not being a rough brute so you break the shell (or even if you crack it, it will heal, it will just look funny when it comes out) you can tell by feel which hen should lay the next day. You might need to do it a few nights in a row to get a complete picture. Even a good layer takes a day off every now and then. Bee did I get most of that right? It's your procedure.
With the trap nest you need to see the hen and the egg. Just seeing the hen in there by herself is not enough. I've seen plenty of hens enter a nest and not lay an egg. Sometimes they are waiting for neither nest to open up, sometimes they don't even lay that day. Seeing a hen in a nest is not a guarantee she is actually laying.
