Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: Foghorn-Leghorn on September 09, 2011, 20:01
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Can anyone offer some advice on what may be wrong with one of my hens. She's a one year old Marrans and over summer has stopped laying all together - her comb has shrunk and become very pale but her wattles are still a healthy red colour.
She isn't noticably moulting in that she isn't bald but I know she has regrown some feathers and is currently lacking her longer tail feathers.
She's otherwise happy and healthy - eating and drinking fine and although bottom of the pecking order, she is in the thick of it with the rest of the flock.
This has been the case for the last three months.
All the other birds are healthy and are showing no similar symptoms.
I recently frontlined them all, they've been wormed in the last month (Flubenvet) and I spray the house each week for redmite (and have also done the white paper on the perches routine but not seen anything)....
Does anyone have any idea of what this may be? Is she having a somewhat long and slow moult or has her egg laying days finished?
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Hi I had the same problem with one of my girls when she either moulted or just stopped laying her comb shrunk to nothing and was pale pink, I wouldn't give up hope of her never laying again as with mine suddenly her comb grew again and she started to lay, it may be a long moult and she will lay soon :)
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Thank you for the reply, the reassurance is much appreciated. I just hope she remembers what she's meant to be doing soon! ::)
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I would agree, one year old is young to stop laying, if she is healthy otherwise I wouldn't worry, our hens are always stopping laying for one reason or another!
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If she healthy otherwise shows no signs of rattly breathing, emancipation or depression she will probably start to lay again.
HF
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How did this develop? I have a similar issue with a hen who has a shrunken comb but appears otherwise healthy and she has not laid for about 3 months now. I feel this has gone on too long to be normal and that I must be missing something.
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Hi and welcome to the forum.
When a hen is off lay her comb shrinks and becomes paler. It is perfecly normal.
Having a brigt red comb is a signal of fertility to cockerels, so, during moulting/winter/or brooding chicks the comb becomes paler.
If your hen hasn't layed for 3 months, she is unlikely to start again before spring. Don't worry about it though. I have 11 pullets and two hens at the moment, and not one of them is laying! My Marans hen, who normally sports a large red comb, is now sporting a rather wiggly smaller pink comb. But she is hale and hearty, so I'm not worried about it at all :) (my other pullets/hens have mainly pea and rose combs, so there isn't much idfference in size)