Apologies for the o/t but I know there are some hen keepers here, and I
don't have a ng that seems appropriate (if there is one, please point me at
it, but I've not spotted an obvious one)

Big Brown Chicken stopped laying over winter (she's just over a year old, I
think), and we assumed it was just a winter slow-down thing. But she
doesn't seem to be in any hurry to start again. Should we be worried about
her at all?
(She's a rhode island red hybrid, looks like this:
http://static.gotpetsonline.com/pict...icken-0001.jpg
)


--

wrote in message
...
Apologies for the o/t but I know there are some hen keepers here, and I
don't have a ng that seems appropriate (if there is one, please point me
at
it, but I've not spotted an obvious one)

Big Brown Chicken stopped laying over winter (she's just over a year old,
I
think), and we assumed it was just a winter slow-down thing. But she
doesn't seem to be in any hurry to start again. Should we be worried
about
her at all?
(She's a rhode island red hybrid, looks like this:
http://static.gotpetsonline.com/pict...icken-0001.jpg
)




How old is she?

Is she eating & drinking well?

Is she swollen up at all?

Are her droppings ok?

Has she been wormed?

And external parasites?

wafflycat wrote:
How old is she?

(As I said above :-) she's just over 1, if I recall correctly.
She was one of our first pair. (Actually, our replacement first pair, cos
the first got taken back cos they were yucky) We got our first about a year
ago, not sure of the date, and she was POL, so I'm guessing she's between 14
and 16 months.

Is she eating & drinking well?

Seems to be.

Is she swollen up at all?

Not that I've noticed.

Are her droppings ok?

Hard to tell whose is whose, but no-one seems to be having problems.

Has she been wormed?
And external parasites?

Hmm, that would be NIck's area, not mine, so I would have to check with him.

However, I've just remembered - over winter we thought we were going to lose
her, cos she had a broken egg, but after some prodding and TLC she
recovered. I wonder if she may have had internal damage that has healed
over but caused a permanent problem?

As you may be able to tell, we're relatively new to this game!

Thanks.

wrote in message
...
wafflycat wrote:
How old is she?

(As I said above :-) she's just over 1, if I recall correctly.
She was one of our first pair. (Actually, our replacement first pair, cos
the first got taken back cos they were yucky) We got our first about a
year
ago, not sure of the date, and she was POL, so I'm guessing she's between
14
and 16 months.

Is she eating & drinking well?

Seems to be.

Is she swollen up at all?

Not that I've noticed.

Are her droppings ok?

Hard to tell whose is whose, but no-one seems to be having problems.

Has she been wormed?
And external parasites?

Hmm, that would be NIck's area, not mine, so I would have to check with
him.

However, I've just remembered - over winter we thought we were going to
lose
her, cos she had a broken egg, but after some prodding and TLC she
recovered. I wonder if she may have had internal damage that has healed
over but caused a permanent problem?

As you may be able to tell, we're relatively new to this game!


She ought to be laying again by now, in fact a one year old will often lay
through the winter, but given her recent problems you might have to be
patient to see if she comes into lay again and if not decide whether you
want to keep her just as a pet.
It all depends on whether you keep your hens only when they are productive.

On 22 Apr, 18:56, "Christina Websell"
wrote:
wrote in message

...



wafflycat wrote:
How old is she?

(As I said above :-) she's just over 1, if I recall correctly.
She was one of our first pair. *(Actually, our replacement first pair, cos
the first got taken back cos they were yucky) *We got our first about a
year
ago, not sure of the date, and she was POL, so I'm guessing she's between
14
and 16 months.

Is she eating & drinking well?

Seems to be.

Is she swollen up at all?

Not that I've noticed.

Are her droppings ok?

Hard to tell whose is whose, but no-one seems to be having problems.

Has she been wormed?
And external parasites?

Hmm, that would be NIck's area, not mine, so I would have to check with
him.

However, I've just remembered - over winter we thought we were going to
lose
her, cos she had a broken egg, but after some prodding and TLC she
recovered. *I wonder if she may have had internal damage that has healed
over but caused a permanent problem?

As you may be able to tell, we're relatively new to this game!

She ought to be laying again by now, in fact a one year old will often lay
through the winter, but given her recent problems you might have to be
patient to see if she comes into lay again and if not decide whether you
want to keep her just as a pet.
It all depends on whether you keep your hens only when they are productive.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

In the dim and distant past when we still had Pounds Shillings and
pence and hybrid chickens were just an idea in someones head then eggs
from the breeds of chickens we had then would be around 2/6d to 3/- a
dozen in summer but in the winter they would rise to 7/6p to 10/- a
dozen chiefly because hens slowed down their laying over the winter.
Then along came the fancy hybids and they are capable of laying around
340 eggs in their first year of laying.
She may well start to lay soon and go broody almost at once.
David Hill

"Dave Hill" wrote in message
...
On 22 Apr, 18:56, "Christina Websell"
wrote:
wrote in message

...



wafflycat wrote:
How old is she?

(As I said above :-) she's just over 1, if I recall correctly.
She was one of our first pair. (Actually, our replacement first pair,
cos
the first got taken back cos they were yucky) We got our first about a
year
ago, not sure of the date, and she was POL, so I'm guessing she's
between
14
and 16 months.

Is she eating & drinking well?

Seems to be.

Is she swollen up at all?

Not that I've noticed.

Are her droppings ok?

Hard to tell whose is whose, but no-one seems to be having problems.

Has she been wormed?
And external parasites?

Hmm, that would be NIck's area, not mine, so I would have to check with
him.

However, I've just remembered - over winter we thought we were going to
lose
her, cos she had a broken egg, but after some prodding and TLC she
recovered. I wonder if she may have had internal damage that has healed
over but caused a permanent problem?

As you may be able to tell, we're relatively new to this game!

She ought to be laying again by now, in fact a one year old will often lay
through the winter, but given her recent problems you might have to be
patient to see if she comes into lay again and if not decide whether you
want to keep her just as a pet.
It all depends on whether you keep your hens only when they are
productive.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

In the dim and distant past when we still had Pounds Shillings and
pence and hybrid chickens were just an idea in someones head then eggs
from the breeds of chickens we had then would be around 2/6d to 3/- a
dozen in summer but in the winter they would rise to 7/6p to 10/- a
dozen chiefly because hens slowed down their laying over the winter.
Then along came the fancy hybids and they are capable of laying around
340 eggs in their first year of laying.
She may well start to lay soon and go broody almost at once.
-----
The broody ability has pretty well been bred out of hybrid hens, although
I've had a couple of hybrids go broody in the past if allowed to live long
enough.
Hybrid hens do lay very well but they are bred to burn out soon - they are a
high octane hen that needs high octane food too.
With the history of a broken egg inside it might be that she won't lay
again. Hybrids lose their shell quality soon (because they've never been
selected for it, it was only necessary to last long enough for the
batteries) and if you do choose to keep them you have to realise you will
not have a long-lived bird and it will be also prone to egg peritonitis.
Tina