Last November, I had a sick hen: Sick Hen thread
She recovered pretty well, after a course of antibiotics, but her poop is still not normal. It's very loose and/or watery. In addition, I am not convinced that she is laying.
As I mentioned before, I have four hens. Two (heritage breeds) are going on five years old. Two are TSC Easter Eggers, who are almost two years old. The Buff, Rosemary, appeared to stop laying completely awhile back, before she even molted in the fall. I figured she was just done. Well, she's laying again!! Is that common?? I thought once they were done, they were done!
The EE's have been great layers, up until Esther got sick, then had a hard molt....and Martha quit laying for awhile too while it was post-molt/winter. Now one of them is laying regularly, I suspect Martha.
Anyway I guess my questions are these:
1. Is that common for a hen to start laying again after a LOOOOOOOONG time off? I get that they don't lay as much in fall and winter, or after a molt, but she wasn't even laying last summer!
2. How can I tell if Esther is or is not laying? She is the one who was sick and still has the weird poop. She looks good (recovered from her molt, comb/wattles nice and red, etc) and acts normal. Is there anything I can do about the very messy poop? Definitely not normal.
What it comes down to is this: I've been getting regular brown eggs from the two old girls lately, and only about one green egg to every two of the brown eggs. It should be the green egg layers who are outproducing the brown egg layers, since they are so much younger....Any thoughts?
She recovered pretty well, after a course of antibiotics, but her poop is still not normal. It's very loose and/or watery. In addition, I am not convinced that she is laying.
As I mentioned before, I have four hens. Two (heritage breeds) are going on five years old. Two are TSC Easter Eggers, who are almost two years old. The Buff, Rosemary, appeared to stop laying completely awhile back, before she even molted in the fall. I figured she was just done. Well, she's laying again!! Is that common?? I thought once they were done, they were done!
The EE's have been great layers, up until Esther got sick, then had a hard molt....and Martha quit laying for awhile too while it was post-molt/winter. Now one of them is laying regularly, I suspect Martha.
Anyway I guess my questions are these:
1. Is that common for a hen to start laying again after a LOOOOOOOONG time off? I get that they don't lay as much in fall and winter, or after a molt, but she wasn't even laying last summer!
2. How can I tell if Esther is or is not laying? She is the one who was sick and still has the weird poop. She looks good (recovered from her molt, comb/wattles nice and red, etc) and acts normal. Is there anything I can do about the very messy poop? Definitely not normal.
What it comes down to is this: I've been getting regular brown eggs from the two old girls lately, and only about one green egg to every two of the brown eggs. It should be the green egg layers who are outproducing the brown egg layers, since they are so much younger....Any thoughts?
