First Time Laying Egg for Hen

[hailee]

Hello Everyone,

Last night one of my almost 6 month old females laid her first egg. My husband and I were sitting down to eat at the dinner table, which is near their cage, and right in front of us she begins to lay the egg. The whole process took about 2 minutes. I have 5 hens in the cage, the mother and four almost 6 month old girls. So the egg is unfertilized, and dropped to the floor and I removed it immediately afterwards. My concern is if she is too young to be laying eggs, it seemed like she struggled through it and there was a small dot of blood on the egg when she was done, and her rear took a good while to close up afterwards. I can't find any information of whether these symptoms are normal, or if she is the right age. After she laid the egg, she dropped a dime size amount of water with her poop. Does anyone have any information on this? Will the 3 other young girls have to go through the same thing? I am feeding eggs with shells daily to make sure she gets the calcium she needs. Her tail is bobbing up and down more than normal, and looks like she has another one to lay still, but other than that she looks perfectly healthy today and is flying around and perching just like normal. Their mom lays eggs in about 5 seconds, so that is why I am concerned.

[DanteD716]

Hmm, hopefully she does not continue to lay, but it sounds like she is getting ready to breed or come into condition, I would still mait another 3-6 months. Just make sure she is gooding a good diet, she should be fine. All hens have to pass their first egg sometime, keep an eye out for puffiness also, incase she becomes eggbound.

Also, do not be concerned, her mom may pop them out so fast because she has dne it before. All your hens will eventually drop an egg or two... A bird is never too young to lay an egg (it cant be stopped) just too young to breed

[hailee]

Thanks for the help Dante! Today she seems much, much better, and has stopped bobbing her bottom up and down like before. I put some vitamin drops in her water, extra egg shells for calcium, and a warm steamy bird bath yesterday, just to be sure in case she became egg bound with a second one. Her droppings are still a little more wet and a bit larger than usual, but are decreasing in size as time goes on, is that normal after laying?

[finchmix22]

Yes, the larger and wetter droppings are normal, as the egg blocks the ability to pass their droppings normally. Once, they stop laying eggs, the droppings will return to normal size etc. You did a great job preventing egg binding!