Monthly Archives: August 2010

Several of you have written me concerned about Daisy the hen who had an egg break inside of her. Click here. I have been hesitant to give you an update until I could really see some progress. It is hard to know whether she truly has something wrong inside her where the egg is formed, or whether her problem is dietary.

Vitamins and Electrolytes for Farm Animals

I got some really good advice on how to treat her. It is difficult to treat a chicken that has a chronic problem with forming eggs. If it were possible, I’d have an hysterectomhy done on Daisy and just have her as a pet. Forget the eggs. But alas, I don’t want to put her through that, and to be honest, I don’t think it can be done.

Treating a dietary problem is the best option. Electrolytes were recommended. They are relatively inexpensive and are made for poultry and farm animals. The packaged powder contains electrolytes and vitamins. When we put Daisy back in the run with the other hens we treated the water with electrolytes. That means all the hens drank the solution and all of them showed a change in their energy level. It was like I had put the camera on high speed. They dashed from place to place and when Don and I sat in the run, they hopped on and off our laps, never really settling down. They looked, like I feel, when I’ve drunk too many cappuccinos. After a week we discontinues the electrolytes.

Ultra Egg Omega Supplement-Looks Like Daisy on the Cover

We were advised to continue making oyster shell available to the hens and to dry their eggshells when we cook with eggs, pulverize them, and add the powdered shells to their feed. I also bought a powdered supplement call “Omega Ultra Egg”. A quarter of a cup is to be sprinkled into their food each day. Tulip, the Ameraucana, loved it. The first day it was added, she scooped it up in her beak and gulped it down, leaving nothing for the other hens. She promptly suffered diarrhea from the rich supplement.

Daisy's Deformed Egg Alongside Tulip's Normal Green Egg

Daisy has layed one egg every three days for the past two weeks. The first three broke as she pushed them out. Then she began laying eggs that were intact but had deformed shells. Each egg that she has layed in the past week has appeared more and more normal. Does this mean that she is cured? I am hesitant to be too optimistic. She is acting normal, however, and that is good news. She once again scratches in the dirt, dust bathes, enjoys sitting in the sun, and sits on my lap in the evening. We hope that she will continue to strengthen and be with us for many years!

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Daisy is Soaking in the Laundry Tub

Daisy had an egg break inside her and it has made her sick. It is hard to know what exactly caused this. Something has gone wrong with her “egg-making machine”. She was always a good layer. She was the first of our flock to begin laying eggs at 5 months.

What’s Wrong With this Hen?

Last week I found her with her head drooping down facing the corner. She didn’t eat or drink but was able to join the others on the roost inside in the evening. This went on for another day. On the second day we turned her upside down. A piece of what looked liked plastic was sticking out of her vent. I pulled on it gently but it caused her discomfort. I took a picture of it (yes, folks, I did) and posted a question on the Backyard Chicken Forum, “First Emergency: What is this sticking out of my hen, and what do I do about it?” You can see the post with all the graphic pictures by going the Backyard Chickens forum and search the topic. You’ll see that it is a common problem and causes much illness and death in hens.

Backyard Chickens is a website with nearly 50,000 members (including me).

Members can post questions and answers. Everything I’ve learned about chickens, I learned on this site. Kind of like, “Chicken lovers helping chicken lovers”. They were quick to advise me and give me support.

Turned out that daisy had an unformed egg break inside her. What I saw was the membrane inside a broken egg that had dried and gotten stuck. We would need to soften the membrane and get it out. Daisy tolerated mineral oil being put in her vent (where the egg comes out). I’ll leave it to your imagination as to how we did that. She tolerated soaking in a laundry tub full of warm water. She tolerated have the membrane pulled from her body. She tolerated being dried with a hair dryer. And, finally, she rather enjoyed sitting in a cage in the laundry room, under a heat lamp, warming herself.

As the sun began to set, Daisy wanted to rejoin her flock. We put her in with her sisters and she went off to roost. Hopefully, she will recover. I’m hesitant to be too hopeful. When things go wrong with the “egg-maker” it is often a chronic condition. We’re keeping a close eye on her. Daisy is a sweet, sweet, hen. I would hate to lose her.