MJ's little flock

[Shadrach]

She's been laying regularly for almost a month.

Hopefully she'll have her usual cheerful attitude in the morning. She's going on 7 years old, so she could be winding up her egg production. We often hear about pullets laying unusual eggs, but no one ever says much about their older hens.

What I've found with older hens coming to the end of their laying life without any signs of reproductive problems or other serious health issues is the eggs get less frequent, more oval than round and the shells get thinner. I've had hens go through this and they've been fine. A few have gone broody once their laying life is over and will take over a junior hens nest.

Getting a series of lash eggs in older hens is usually a sign of reproductive problems and given how difficult these can be to fix, I've not expected that hen to live for much longer.
They are no different to us in this respect, few die of ripe old age. Mostly it's a health issue that puts us down, often a combination of health issues. It's the way it is unfortunately.

 

[Shadrach]

She laid a normal, hard shelled egg this morning.

Here's the video.

While I was waiting for the video to upload, a shell-less egg with a membrane came out.

View attachment 3956058

She mostly skipped happy hour and dinner.

I hope this is due to ageing and not something serious.

Am about to start reading up.

Appreciate any thoughts.

That doesn't look like a serious problem to me. The yolk looks good, the white is still runny and transparent and there is some shell. Hopefully it's just a system glitch. I would give her some extra calcium failing any better advice from a vet.

 

[BY Bob]

She's been laying regularly for almost a month.

Hopefully she'll have her usual cheerful attitude in the morning. She's going on 7 years old, so she could be winding up her egg production. We often hear about pullets laying unusual eggs, but no one ever says much about their older hens.

Older hens definitely lay weird eggs. Like @Shadrach Said they get rounder. Mine have lost all color and become not white but kind of grey. I've seen a lot of wrinkly eggs in older girls as well.

Lilly would sit in the nest box for 3 days to lay an egg in her last year. I think she only laid 3 or 4 eggs that year. One each summer month.

 

[MaryJanet]

Mary appears to be energetic and cheerful. She's not as pale as she was this morning and she was among the first out of the run when I got home from work. She didn't lay an egg today, but that's to be expected after two were laid yesterday.

I'm going to keep a close eye on her for the time being.

 

[MaryJanet]

Here she is, picking up bits of shell grit (calcium) and making a bee-line for the water once she decides it's happy hour.

She has a small piece of straw caught in her eyelid as you do.

I don't usually scatter feed but as I'm worried about Mary, I decided to do so just this once so there'd be no queueing up and squabbling at the feeders.

 

[MaryJanet]

I appreciate your contributions @Perris , @Shadrach and @BY Bob . You helped me lower my fear and anxiety.

 

[MaryJanet]

Mary seems ok again this morning. I look forward to observing her at length tomorrow.

 

[MaryJanet]

Mary laid a normal egg yesterday (the one in the middle) and then she decided to try a few hours of brooding. The weather's not very warm and about ten minutes after I lifted her curtain she decided to get up and she chose the roost at bedtime.

She's been keeping me guessing this week.

I'm almost certain the early evening shell-less egg a couple of days ago was just a weird occurrence. Katie has her follow up appointment on Tuesday morning, which I'm sure will go very well because she's full of vivacity, but I'll discuss Mary with the vet and see what they say.

 

[MaryJanet]

Spring means looking up and thinking, "Wow! When did that happen?"

 

[MaryJanet]

Okaaaay