my hen has been in nest box most of the day...

16 years ago

Hi,

I have an cuckoo maran, she is about 1 year old. I adapted her 2 months ago.

She started laying egg about 4 weeks ago. Nice dark brown egg everyday. However it stopped about 2 weeks ago. Since then, she spends most of the day in nest box, but no eggs so far...

I have been feeding same food and same amount of water to all birds (6 hens as total).

Do you have any idea what's going on with her?? I wish I can do something for her... Not sure she has been eating or not, but she come out and play with other hens once a day or so...

I would appreciate any thoughts or advices. Thanks!!

-b

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (5)

velvet_sparrow
16 years ago
Can you give us more info on her--is she listless, sitting with eyes closed, breathing hard, losing weight, looking sick, etc? Any runny poops and are her vent feathers dirty?

If she isn't obviously sick or egg bound (panting, straining to lay), it could be that she is broody--wants to hatch some eggs. Check my chicken site here and see if anything on this page matches:

http://home.earthlink.net/~velvetsparrow/VSChickHensBroodiesChicks.htm

That's the section on broodies & egg binding. You ned to rule out illness and/or injury first, because if something is wrong you need to act quickly. :)

Velvet ~:>
chiaki0730
Original Author
16 years ago
Hi Velvet,

Thank you so much for your reply. I have been trying to watch her, but I still not 100% sure if she is egg-binding or brooding... (thanks for your link. It's really helpful!)

All I know is she opens her eyes while she is sitting, may lost a bit weight, but hard to tell since I don't pick her up usually... Once in a while, I see her breathing hard like right after she lays egg, but not all the time. Her vent feather is a bit dirty. Didn't think she looked sick...

I went ahead and mixed up live oil, karo and milk and fed her some of it. When I opened one of our egg collecting door which allow me to reach her w/o going inside of the coop, she didn't move much. When I tried to feed the mix, she moved her necks a lot, but didn't stand up. Finally I tried to pick her up, she stood up and try to go away from me.

Her abdomen didn't look distended too me. I touched around it, but didn't feel any egg (do I need to squeeze hard to feel egg??)

She is a pretty fluffy bird (look a lot bigger than another Cuckoo Maran I had before). I will try to take her picture tomorrow w/day light and post it here since it's pretty dark outside now.

Thanks!!
-b
Related Discussions
Building a cheap nesting box
Q
Comments (19)
I found some 2x4s laying around, if you don't have any you can get the stud grade I have them at Lowe's for $1.57 for the 2x4 x96 studs. I used about five, if I count my scrap. Then I used a peace of 15/32 inch plywood at 2FT x 4FT as the bottem. I ran a 4FT peace of 2X4 on one side, and four 18 inch peaces on the ends standing up right with supporting 2x4 peaces forming a box at the top and bottem of my up right peaces. Make sure the supporting peaces are on the outside, as you will need them later. My only question, of witch I have not tested, as I still have nails to cut off before doing this, is I atached screening to the short ends as I was reading that a open air coop is better then a dark dank closed up coop. I then took some old barn wood from a barn we took down next dore, and used it for the back as I didn't have any more plywoodI then started running out of scroos, hints the nails that I have to cut off, my framing gun only had really long nails in it at the time. I plan to add a hinged top as I am thinking of cutting an opening in the coop wall, and ataching the box over it on the outside so that the Hens can go in and out at will. I spent in all $20 on my coop and nesting box. I had the deck scroos and the 15/32 plywood left over from building the dog houses, and the 1/4 sheets were removed from the walls of the house when we took out the old bathroom. This is why I tell people not to get rid of things that you might use later. if anyone has a good idea about the screened sides, Please let me know if I should close them up. On the coop, I am installing a screen dore on the south side, that can close at night, but open in the day time to let the hens out to the yard.
...See More
hen sitting/broken egg/change the nest?
Q
Comments (5)
If she only started sitting the eggs in the last couple of days, I'd toss out everything--eggs too--and let her start again with fresh nesting material & new eggs. If the eggs are fairly well along, you can try and save them. First, create a temporary nest in a small cardboard box or a large mixing bowl with a bit of straw or an old towel. Have a damp (not wet) paper towel or two ready to clean the eggs with, plus fresh nesting material. Have all this stuff ready to go before you approach the nest, so that mama hen won't be disturbed for too long. Remove mama hen from the nest and shoo her away for a minute. If she has dried egg on her feathers, leave her be--she can clean herself, and you don't want to wet her feathers down and have her soak & chill the eggs when she returns to the nest. It won't harm the eggs to have her off the nest for a short time (hens naturally take anywhere from 10-20 minute breaks from setting, eggs are designed to handle this). Take one good egg at a time and GENTLY dab at it with a damp paper towel to clean off the worst of the mess. DON'T wash the egg, as eggs are porous and doing so can help introduce bacteria to the interior of the egg and kill the forming chick, or chill the egg too much. Check the eggs quickly but carefully for cracks, and be careful not to jostle them too much, turning them slowly in your hand. You only want to remove the worst of the crud. If the eggs are only a bit messy, leave them be. Mother Nature knows what she is doing, and over the course of setting on them, the body oils from mama hen's skin will polish the eggs to a lovely glow and polish off minor amounts of crud. :) Transfer the eggs one at a time into the temporary nest. Remove the fouled (fowled? hurr...) nesting material and place fresh, make a small well in it and place mama hen at the entrance to the nest & eggs so she sees it. Then back off. Let HER return to her nest herself, as if you place her right on the eggs she might end up stumbling around, stepping on them and you end up with more broken eggs. Let her be, and hopefully all will be well. :) Good luck with the hatch! I have a chicken site with lots of info that might help, the section on hens & chicks is here: http://jackshenhouse.com/VSChickHensBroodiesChicks.htm Velvet ~:>
...See More
80 mph winds damaged nest box, nest & eggs - birds okay
Q
Comments (3)
Awwww..so sorry to hear of this. That storm came through my yard too, and took one of my Bradford Pears down. It landed across my driveway, and luckily did not hit the house or our basketball goal. Gosh, it came through really fast. If you are not seeing them back at the house at all, then they have abandoned the nest. You don't need to wait the 2 weeks to remove the nest. Give it a few days, and when you are sure that they have abandoned, go ahead and remove the nest. Maybe they will build there again. There is still plenty of time.~~Angie
...See More
What A Day This Has Been
Q
Comments (10)
Oh, see my plumber screwed up my eco toilets. I told him they have a strict 12" rough in and he calls my contractor telling him that I got these crazy wall mounted toilets (??). Umm, no. They have a strict 12" rough in that makes the tank, etc. flush with the wall. So no, you cannot run the water line directly behind the toilet. So Genius Plumber, instead of reading the Kohler install guide, just takes the template and jacks it 3" off the wall so that I can "reach back there for the water line." Umm, and how am I supposed to clean a 2.5" space behind the toilet? The waterline is supposed to be fed through a port on the side of the toilet with a fancy little stainless hole cover. Which the plumber then THREW OUT because he didn't know what it did. So now my toilets are all sicking out of their carefully designed hidey-holes and my marble floors are all drilled. And best of all, my water saving eco toilets run constantly because Genius Plumber had never installed dual flush toilets, so I have to keep the lids off until I want to use one. I swear I'm not sure if it's good or bad to know more than these jokers do. I think I would be more accepting if I were stupider. Herding cats. Seriously. And after all the problems he had at my place, I can't believe my contractor is going to use him on a bathroom designed by a husband and wife architect team that have never heard the term "standard plumbing fixture."
...See More
chiaki0730
Original Author
16 years ago
Ok, I took some pictures below.

Update today: After taking her picture (I found her still sitting in nesting area), I checked her vent, then released her in outside area with other hens. She was walking/running fine, ate some pellets & corn I strewed. Pecked other hens more than usual tho.

After seeing her being outside, I was 80% sure she is in brooding mode rather than egg biding...

However, there is some spot at the chest that her feather looked no so smooth... (there is a pix for that).

I would love to hear your opinion!!

{{gwi:46523}}

{{gwi:46524}}

{{gwi:46525}}

{{gwi:46526}}
velvet_sparrow
16 years ago
Well, she looks like she might be broody. A lot of the breeds have had a lot of the brooding instinct bred out of them, the end result is sometimes a confused, half-broody kind of behaviour.

I have a little hen who is the spitting image of yours, mine is named Houdini (a name she earned in her first days of living with us). Houdini is also broody right now, she'll growl a little bit but hops right off the nest and grumps around the yard when we roust her off the nest.

Velvet ~:>
yangkun_purple_gmail_com
13 years ago
I'm quite sure that your hen is broody,is she kind of puffing up when she sees you?

my hen has been in nest box most of the day...

Comments (5)

velvet_sparrow

chiaki0730
Original Author

Related Discussions

chiaki0730
Original Author

velvet_sparrow

yangkun_purple_gmail_com

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

my hen has been in nest box most of the day...

Comments (5)

velvet_sparrow

chiaki0730Original Author

Related Discussions

chiaki0730Original Author

velvet_sparrow

yangkun_purple_gmail_com

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

chiaki0730
Original Author

chiaki0730
Original Author