Winifred's Nesting Box Weirdness.

[boopsqueak]

Hello,
Our Speckled Sussex, Winifred (roughly a year and a half old) has been acting rather strangely lately. We're not sure how long this has been going on for (maybe since August?), but she has taken to sitting in the nesting box, turning around, and acting as if she is going to lay an egg, and then not producing anything.
I'm pretty sure that she started doing this fairly frequently after we had two bobcat attacks (the first in late July, the second in early August. Fortunately, no birds were killed. Winifred was not attacked, but she was still pretty stressed by the event.) There have also been many hawks about lately, very brazen ones that circle menacingly over our birds and stare at them from the treetops.
Has anyone here had any experience with behavior like this? I'm not sure when Winnie laid her last egg (I'm not the one who collects the eggs, she might still be laying occasionally). She doesn't seem to be molting or going broody, her appetite is great, and she still holds her own in the pecking order (as the Cruel Countess). Could this odd behavior be caused by stress, or does it seem likely that there is an infection of some sort going on here?
One thing we have noticed about Winifred is that her face, comb, and wattles have always been rather pale compared to those of the other chickens, though they are much rosier than in the past. She is also thinner than our other Sussex, though she is taller and quite heavy. Her eggs, when she does lay, have a distinctive shape to them, I'm not really sure how to describe it. During her first year, she laid rubber eggs from the roost at night twice (and ate one of them). She also had sour crop twice in the past, and we are treating her for a third time now (from what I've read on here, Sussexes seem to be prone to have crop problems). Her output is watery, but that seems to go with sour crop, and it isn't bright green or yellow, as is often the case with reproductive infections.

Here she is, being bribed. She looks paler in this picture than she does now.
Thank you in advance for any advice!

 

[Debbie292d]

Since you don't know if she is or isn't laying eggs, that is rather important if you could try find out. Do you have a section of the coop you could leave her in for a day or two to find out?

I'd also have her or them all on some Nutra Drench or Poultry Cell water a couple of times a week. It may be she's suffering from a vitamin deficiency.

As for the stress, I've seen it happen with three that were given to us after a fox got all of their siblings. I can't say I noticed any hens ever turning around in their nest as if to lay but not lay then, but they were definitely affected, scared, and didn't venture out much with my other ones for months.

 

[boopsqueak]

Thank you for your reply, I'm sorry for not responding sooner. I don't think we'll have to section off a part of the coop for her, as she seems to stay in the nesting box when she is "laying". She went through her little routine today, sitting in the nesting box. Nothing. There's a tiny chance that she could be hiding her eggs in the litter somewhere and burying them, but that doesn't seem likely since we stir the deep litter frequently.
She and the rest of the flock get a mixture of Poultry Cell, drench, and water mixed into their feed. I could give her straight drench or poultry cell, though; it probably wouldn't hurt her to try. Her crop feels much better, too.
That's awful about the three chickens you mentioned above! Poor things! Fortunately, the bobcat hasn't been near our house in a while, but we did see him today further down the road. Winifred was pretty badly stressed after the bobcat first attacked, though, and I don't blame her! I also forgot to mention that we have a bit of a rat problem as well. I thought we had thwarted him (or them), but yesterday evening, an egg had disappeared mysteriously from one of the nesting boxes. So that could be another cause of stress.

 

[boopsqueak]

I'm sorry for taking so long to provide an update.
It looks like Winifred stopped laying (or rather pretending to lay) altogether a couple of weeks ago. Her crop problems resolved soon after I posted my last update. She may be molting (I found several Sussex feathers in the run today, but she is one of two Sussexes), at any rate, her vent has shrunk and looks less moist, indicating that she is "off lay". She is acting normally, and as the hawk activity has tapered off, things are probably less stressful for her and the others. I wonder if her weird behavior was some sort of hormonal quirk?
Following your advice, we gave her some drench as well as Poultry Cell. She is an extremely picky chicken, so it wasn't easy. She and the others are now getting a new supplement called SeaBuck 7 in their feed, which is supposed to have all sorts of health benefits, so hopefully that will benefit Winnie. Thank you again for your advice!

 

[Seaslug]

I just wanted to add, for what it may be worth, that I had four Speckled Sussex. Earlier this year we lost one to our neighbor's dog and that really upset the dynamics of the three remaining Sussex. They stopped laying for months due to the stress. My only other chicken has perhaps gone into henopause, so I can not gauge if this is a Sussex thing... Glad to hear your girl is doing better.

 

[boopsqueak]

I just wanted to add, for what it may be worth, that I had four Speckled Sussex. Earlier this year we lost one to our neighbor's dog and that really upset the dynamics of the three remaining Sussex. They stopped laying for months due to the stress. My only other chicken has perhaps gone into henopause, so I can not gauge if this is a Sussex thing... Glad to hear your girl is doing better.

That's good to know, thanks for your input. I'm also sorry to hear about the dog attack!
Winifred is definitely molting, there are feathers everywhere today and she is starting to look pretty shabby.