Susan, From Arkansas

[Susan Rogers]

I had a young hen last year, during the winter she seemed to stop laying. When spring came she laid an egg one day, then skipped a day, then when I checked the next day, she had laid 4 eggs! How is this possible? I've never heard of such a thing. She was the only chicken I had and I was so surprised I had to call my Parents! They too were amazed! :eek:

[Fred's Fine Fowl]

That hen would have won a ribbon in the egg laying competition at the fair to be sure!

First I'll explain the normal egg cycle just for general interest...

When a chick is hatched, female birds already have the germ cells which will one day become eggs and they are a specific number. So, we already have a finite number of eggs for that hen.

Hens lay in day light or when lights are "on" in battery systems or inside coops that would otherwise be dark.

One egg is produced every 25 hours in a highly prolific hen. The world hen laying record in the past has gone to birds like the highly versatile Rhode Island Red and Rhode Island White, producing over 200 eggs/year. Now, the White Leghorn is the overall leader in egg production, with up to 300 eggs per year. A single bird, the Black Australorp (originating in Australia) has the world record for most eggs produced in a single year... but overall, this breed is not the leader in egg production.

So... how or why did your bird apparently go into egg popping overdrive?

A couple of things immediately came to mind as I read your post...
One, the poor hen could have been "egg-bound", that means she was unable to lay her eggs on time and they were literally backing up inside her oviduct. This can be a very dangerous condition for hens... for example if an egg bursts inside the hen, death can result. When she was finally able to release/lay her eggs, they all came out at once... but had already been produced in the normal time frame.

Another thing that can happen, is that they bury eggs in their litter and those are missed during collection... then the hen re-arranges the litter and wallah, she magically has a pile of eggs ready for collection....

If your litter is super tidy and you run your fingers through it in search of eggs, then I default to the egg binding guess...

My third answer is an issue with older hens... when they are in jeopardy of being given away due to low egg production, suddenly they are sitting high on a pile of eggs with their eyes glowing with pride! A little searching around and one will find the empty egg cartons from the farmer's market... evidence that she sneaked out early and paid off the milk man for egg delivery! ("> (';')(';' )

Hope this helps,

Fred (with over a foot of snow and more coming down)

www.FredsFineFowl.com

[Susan Rogers]

I kept her nesting box very clean and did not over stuff it. She was 11 months old when she laid the multiple eggs. I'm sure your right, she was backed up, poor thing was most likely miserable. Her name is Miracle, LOL She was the only one I hatched successfully out of that bunch.
In the future, if a hen (backs up) what can be done to help them expel the eggs?