[Dominic]

One of my chickens has gone broody, is laying soft or shell less eggs 3 days out of 4 and now her comb has gone floppy.

Is all of this normal and will she just stop, or does it sound like something else is going on?

She comes out in the morning to feed, then once the rest have laid, sits on them until I come home from work and turf her out.  She "creates" for about ten minutes, then ambles off.
No agression from other chickens, but she is pulling out her own chest feathers.

[Lewjam]

How old is she?

Sounds like two different things...

Soft shelled/shells are not normally signs of broodiness, but sitting in nest box and pulling out feathers are?

[Dominic]

She is 23 weeks old.

I'm a bit worried she's not eating properly, just having "breakfast" and then starving herself.

[Lewjam]

Hmm sorry, not sure -some one will be along shortly that knows better - better to give no advice then bad advice!

It could be a combination of getting into a laying cycle and then going broody - but im not even sure if that happens!

Most of it sounds like broodyness though.

[Casey76]

What breed is she Dominic?  Quite a lot of breeds have naturally floppy combs.  Sometimes they just get to a certain size, then the flop over.

Laying soft shelled eggs is normal when a pullet is coming into lay, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

And although it is uncommon for such a young pullet to go broody, it wouldn't be the first tiem it's happened!  Just keep turfing her put of the nest box, and (if she is a laying hybrid) that shoud work after a few days.  If not, you can stick her in a crate fo ra few days (with food and water obviously!) and that should snap her out of it

[Dominic]

Erm, she's black with a brown chest, blackrock I think

[joyfull]

black rocks don't have floppy combs - could you post a photo of her so we can see what breed/hybrid she may be.
Soft shells are normal as Casey said for a pullet coming into lay and a hen laying these may appear off colour until after it has passed.

[Dominic]

been laying for a few weeks, definatly a black rock, will try a picture tonight.

[Dominic]

she also has a golf ball sized lump on her front, i poked iit a bit and she poo'ed a bit.

Is this an impacted crop?
And do i just have massage it down?

[joyfull]

that is normal, her crop should be empty in the mornings and then fill up during the course of the day.

[Dominic]

will check it in the morning then

[Dominic]

crop empty this morning, so at least shes eating.

[Dominic]

Egg laying seems to have dropped to 1 in 3 days, and they are without a shell, but not broken either, they are sort of like rubber balls.
She had a giant poo, that really really stank, the neighbours complained......

She's still running out in the morning, eating lots, then trying to hatch eggs till about 6.30 when I take them off her and throw her out.
She complains for about 20 minutes, vocaly, then goes for a bit of an explore and then goes back to sitting where the eggs were.

Does any of this sound normal?