Egg Bound Hens; What To Do

In the 8 years of keeping chickens professionally, we’ve only ever come across an egg bound hen once. In this instance, and as a novice in this area, I went straight to the internet to see what other chicken keepers recommended I do to save the poor girl.

If left untreated, an egg bound hen could die, so it’s best to get in their quick and help her out as soon as you notice something isn’t right.

What is egg binding?

‘Egg bound’ means she has an egg stuck somewhere in her oviduct. The usual place is between the uterus and the cloaca. Sometimes you can even see it from the cloaca/vent. When the egg is ready to pass, the cloaca seals shut the intestinal opening so that eggs don’t get covered in poop. If the hen cannot poop within twenty-four to forty-eight hours, she will likely die. Other effects seen from egg binding are vent prolapse – where the vent hangs out of the rear end and, in severe untreated cases, egg yolk peritonitis which can quickly kill a hen from infection.

What’s the reason behind it?

There are multiple things that can cause egg binding. Some are manageable, others not so much.

• Passing large or odd-shaped eggs. The oviduct can only stretch so far, and a large or misshapen egg can get stuck.

• Malfunction in the reproductive system. Some hens are prone to problems and will lay odd or parchment eggs regularly – genetic issues.

• Double yolk eggs. These are larger than the usual egg and can cause problems.

• Malnutrition – poor diet low in necessary vitamins, minerals, and protein.

• Sedentary life or obesity – muscles become weak from lack of activity or being overweight.

• Premature laying – hens that are forced to lay before they are fully developed often develop binding.

• Elderly chickens – weak muscles and inactivity.

• Egg retention – if insufficient nest boxes are available, a hen will sometimes ‘hold’ her egg.

• Underlying reproductive tract infection. Severe infestation of internal parasites.

As you can already see, some of these are readily preventable by good nutrition and attention to the health and welfare of your hens.

How do you know when a hen is egg-bound? Truly, sometimes you don’t. As we know, hens are secretive about any illness or problems. If she can pass the egg herself, you may not even realize she had a problem.

Common symptoms to look for include:

• Decreased appetite and drinking.

• Lethargic, sitting around, fluffed up.

• ‘looks sick,’ depressed.

• Shaky wings.

• She walks like a penguin – she will periodically stop walking and try to squat.

• Abdominal straining – you can see the cloaca (vent) straining to expel something.

• Tail pumping – her tail will pump up and down to expel the egg.

You can probably apply the first three groups of symptoms to any chicken that is sick with anything. They will usually set off by themselves in a quiet spot. She will fluff the feathers out, and she may have her eyes closed like she’s taking a nap. These signs always bear watching.

How to treat your hen

First, you need to check if she actually is egg bound. Using a latex glove and some vaseline, very gently insert your finger into the vent. Push your finger straight back about two inches or so – you should be able to feel the egg. If you cannot feel an egg – she’s not egg bound.

Prepare a warm water bath with Epsom salts (1 cup ES/1 gallon of water). It needs to be deep enough for your hen to sit to a depth of about three to four inches.

Before you put her in the bath, give her some calcium. A calcium tablet will work great. Make sure you powder it or break it into tiny pieces so the hen can swallow it. Calcium helps to improve the strength of the contractions and helps to expel the egg.

Gently put your hen into the water. She may struggle for a bit, but they usually settle down after a couple of minutes – I think it feels good for them!

She will need to sit in the bath for about fifteen to twenty minutes. When you take her out, towel her off, so she gets dry – a hairdryer will do the trick nicely if she tolerates the noise.

Before doing anything else, place your hen in a quiet, dark, and warm space. The goal is to allow her to lay her egg without any extensive intervention from you or a veterinarian.

After her ‘salon treatment’, put her in a darkened crate with some water and food to drink. If her vent area is swollen, apply some Preparation H, it will help to reduce the swelling. You may need to repeat this treatment three or four times over several hours to try to move the egg along. If, despite your best efforts, she does not pass the egg, your treatment options are getting narrower.

You should seek the services of a veterinarian if you can afford them. If not – the alternative is to remove the egg yourself.

This is not without hazard to your hen. This course of action should be taken as a ‘last resort. We do not advise you to do this unless you have no other choices.

If you can see the egg at the vent, gently make a hole in it large enough to be able to suck the contents out with a syringe (please, no needle!). Once you have the contents out, gently pull on the shell in an attempt to bring it out intact, but if it breaks apart, make sure you have all the pieces.

If you cannot see the egg but can feel it, try to lubricate the vent and cloaca well and try manual manipulation. Sometimes the egg will move, sometimes it breaks. If it breaks, you will have to remove all the shells manually. Any shell pieces left inside will cut and a-braid the interior of the oviduct, leaving the hen wide open to infection.

If you have successfully removed the egg, put her in a crate for a few hours until you know she is eating and drinking just fine. Also check her vent area for prolapse or excessive redness – if it looks red and sore, keep her separate from the flock for a bit longer. If the egg broke inside her, you would need to give her some antibiotics to prevent infection – this requires a veterinarian.

Hopefully you’ll never experience this yourselves, but if you do, I hope this helps you out as much as it helped me!

Why Choose Pasture Raised?

People always ask us; What’s the difference between pasture fed and free range?

Pasture raised basically means that the way we farm is different. We don’t have 1 huge shed filled with thousands of chickens, which nowadays is the norm when it comes to raising chickens for egg production. We have a few smaller coops that house 150 in each. This allows us to keep our husbandry to the highest level and make sure all our hens are happy and healthy.

We take great pride in the welfare and environment of our hens. All our laying hens live in small mobile coops with constant access to our pasture. We regularly move the runs to give them new areas to feed and display the hens natural behaviours. The hens eat only natural organic food and a mixture of grasses and herbs as well as any delicious grubs they can dig up! They are put to bed in their hen sheds at night to protect them from any predators, where they roost on elevated perches. We nearly always have cockerels with the flocks as we find the hens like the added security that they provide and it gives the flock much more of a natural family feel. A happy and well-nourished flock equates to great eggs.

Contrary to popular belief, chickens are actually omnivores, not vegetarians. As the chickens are able to forage for some real animal protein. Insects, worms, flies. They can also eat as much grass as they like, not to mention breathe fresh air and feel the sun on their backs (when it’s available). All contributing to the living conditions of our happy hens. Although we don’t use our hens for meat, we do use our surplus cockerels. A huge bonus of pasture raised chickens is the higher quality meat. There’s research that shows that an animal that is raised on a pasture based system produce meat that is lower in total fats and calories! Their meat is also higher in good fats such as Omega 3, they’re more concentrated with antioxidants such as vitamin E and C with higher levels of disease-fighting substances like CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid) thought to help prevent cancer. Not to mention the improved taste!

We take our cockerels to at least 6 months old on the pasture before taking them to the abattoir. They live the best possible life, living naturally and free ranging all day before giving us the opportunity to sell them as meat to create more income to help sustain their breed. You can buy our cockerels ready processed and frozen on our website. Why not give it a try and let us know what you think!

The Warrington Guardian

Last month, we had the absolute honour of being reported on in our local newspaper! Have a read below:

IT is described by the family as ‘something a little different from your normal farm shop’.

But most visitors to Higher Oak Farm would go further than that and probably call it unique or one of Warrington’s best kept secrets.

The Lymm farm not only offers free range eggs from seven breeds of chicken that are on the Rare Breed Survival Trust List from its charming shepherd’s hut.

The family team have also started baking sweet treats with the farm’s eggs and honey – such as Oreo brownies and raspberry and white chocolate blondies – and how you buy things is an experience in itself.

Visitors choose what they want from a self service vending machine that was made to the family’s specifications in Italy.

Amelia Robertson, Higher Oak Farm, said: “We have 55 cabinets in the hut. People absolutely love it, kids tend to play a game and guess which cabinets going to open, which is adorable. We’ve had really good feedback from everyone we’ve spoken to which is lovely.”

The lockdown success story of the shepherd’s hut is the latest chapter for the Higher Lane farm. Amelia’s dad Kirk Robertson, a former director at a school wear company in Runcorn, bought the land eight years ago as he always wanted to create a small poultry farm.

She added: “He’d always had an interest in and kept chickens, especially rare breeds, for as long as I can remember, so he wanted to expand what he had kept at the house into a specialist farm.

“Initially we were starting out just doing the rare breeds, to concentrate on preserving their genetics, and keeping the breeds from becoming extinct.

“But as we had quite a few birds in the early days, we were giving our surplus eggs to friends and family and found that people were really enjoying them, and that they could taste the difference between our eggs and shop bought ones.”

The farm’s main business at that point was selling hatching eggs and rare breed birds. But now Amelia collects around 300 eggs a day from the pasture raised hens.

The former Lymm High student said: “Hearing people’s feedback really spurred us on to pursue the eating egg production so now we have two main laying houses with around 350 hens in total.

“As we have a variety of breeds we have quite a lot of different colours/shades and sizes of eggs. What is laid that day goes into the hut – you can’t get any fresher.”

The shepherd’s hut opened in November 2020 with the idea being that the vending machine would free up the family’s time for other daily tasks.

Amelia added: “We’d had discussions with another farmer who was vending milk up in Scotland, so we thought that would be a great way for us to sell our produce – and something that’s a little different from your normal farm shop.

"It took us a while to find a vending machine that didn’t drop the products, as this is not ideal for eggs!

“Eventually we found one and it took about six months to get the machine made and to the farm, because of lockdown in Italy where the machine is manufactured.

“During the first lockdown, we spent weeks building it, and we actually found ourselves having a waiting list for our eggs despite our increased flock size, so we were concerned we wouldn’t have enough stock to fill the new shop.”

That is how Higher Oak Bakery came about.

Amelia said: “It allowed us to sell baked sweet treats from the hut using our own eggs. We definitely didn’t anticipate how well this would do. We were working the bakery as a ‘pop-up’ which always sold out.

"We couldn’t keep up with demand, so we knew that this would work as part of the offer at the hut.”

Amelia reckons there is plenty of scope for adding to Higher Oak’s offer too.

The 26-year-old added: “It’s so great to hear the positive feedback of customers and to educate people about what we do on the farm, and we’re now adding more local produce such as homemade jams and apple juice which is grown and bottled in Dunham Massey.

“We’re so excited to be harvesting our honey at the beginning of summer too. We have 10 beehives directly next to our wildflower meadow.”

Amelia also said it felt strange for something so positive to have come out of the Covid era.

She said: “We know so many people who have really struggled through lockdown, so I always feel a bit guilty when people ask how we’re doing, but there’s always got to be some good that comes of these things, and freshly baked brownies and fresh eggs are definitely one of them.

"I’ve never worked so hard in my life, delivering to people who are shielding and baking every day, but it makes it all worth while when you get such lovely, positive feedback. I think that the shepherd’s hut has brought some fun and smiles to people in such a trying time in our lives, and perfectly suited the Covid lifestyle.”

Higher Oak Farm; Where We Are Now

So over the past year our farm has changed tremendously.

January 2020 we started the year off with a barn, a temporary house 4 X ‘50’ houses, 7 breeding runs, a poly-tunnel and an incubator that could fit 60 eggs in. My how we’ve grown! Our smallholding in Lymm now consists of a barn, a temporary house, 2 laying houses, each housing 150 birds in, we’ve got 6 of our ‘50’ houses, 2 of our ‘100’ houses, 7 breeding runs, 2 brooding sheds, a holding shed, a poly-tunnel, 2 new incubators pushing our capacity up to 1300 eggs at a time, a wildflower meadow, 10 beehives, a shepherds hut and a dog!

This past year has been the weirdest one for all of us. Never in my life did I think i’d see a pandemic, let alone run a business during one. Luckily for us, our business was one of few that actually thrived during the pandemic. People stockpiling all sorts of stuff meant that shops were looking sparse, pushing people to change the way they shopped, sourcing more stuff locally, learning about food miles and what this means to our planet and all in all becoming a little bit more self sufficient.

At one point last summer we had waiting lists of weeks for both our eating eggs and our hens. People were spending more time at home, in their garden; revamping chicken houses or just building a run from scratch. It was honestly, madness - in THE best possible way! The selling of our eggs and our birds continued right through the summer into the beginning of Autumn. At this point, we opened ‘The Shepherd’s Hut’.

We opened the hut for the first time on the 26th November 2020. In the weeks running up to our opening, we had so many people speculating what it was, and what it was going to be used for. Once we opened our doors, it gave so many more local people the opportunity to learn about us and what we do on our farm. We took this opportunity to educate people on the poultry industry and the advantages of buying local, naturally farmed eggs and produce. We started putting some of our own baked treats and and they were flying off the shelves. It was almost impossible to keep it full!

We genuinely couldn’t believe the reaction that we got from local residents and people from further afield. Hearing such positive feedback only spurred us on more. We sourced local produce like our Apple juice and even started to make jams using local produce too.

After a few months, we deiced the only logical next step was to put a coffee machine in the hut, who doesn’t love a coffee or a cuppa with a slice of brownie? You’d be mad if you didn’t!

I honestly can’t believe how much our business has changed in the past 12 months, the support that we’re getting of local Lymm residents and the time it takes to feed chickens! We’re super excited to see where we’ll be this time next year.

What Does 'Free Range' Actually Mean?

After the year we’ve had, as a nation, we’re much more aware of where our food is actually coming from. We all remember at the start of lockdown when the supermarkets were running out of the essentials, one of which was eggs; We had never been so busy, absolutely amazing for us!

There’s always a common misconception as to what ‘Free Range’ actually means when it comes to the care and environment the hens live in. until I delved into the egg industry, I actually had no idea what any of the terms meant. I’ve just written a quick blog to explain what they means and what it means for the hens too, just so you can make the right decision for you when buying food products..

Breakdown of egg codes:

When you buy an egg from a supermarket, they all have a code that’s been stamped onto the shell. It’ll look something like this:

Working from left to right, the number at the front is reference to the status of the farm, 0 means that it’s come from an organic farm. 1 means that it’s come from a free range farm. 2 means that it’s come from hens living in a barn and then 3 means that the hens are in caged conditions. Next along is the country of origin; UK. This is then followed by the individual Farm code. This allows each egg to be traced back to the farm where it was produced and then underneath is the ‘best before’ date.

The meaning behind the terms.

Organic - This is the best standard that you can get. All our hens are kept to organic standards, this means that the hens eat all organic feed, have access all day to the outdoors they are kept in much smaller flocks compared to other status’. The maximum hens in one coop is 2,000 birds on a large commercial scale, we have at most 180 birds in 1 house. The hens have 10m2 per bird available outside of the coop and we have maximum 6 hens per m2 inside the coop. They have 10cm of space per feeder per bird, they have at least 18cm of perch per bird too, which means that the hens don’t do something called ‘Vent pecking’ this basically means that there’s enough space between the perches so that the hens cant peck the bum of the hen sitting above them - gross, I know, but it does happen. In short, it’s great to get anything that’s kept to organic standards.

Free Range - In the UK free range means that the hens have access to the outdoors for a period of the day. There’s currently no specific timings that the hens have to be outside for, so this may change from farm to farm. They do have to have 4m2 per bird when they do have access to the outdoors. The hens can eat a much cheaper food, which means that all sorts can be added to it and this is not monitored through any system. Most free range hens become 'free range’ at about 18 weeks old, just when they start to lay. Before this they can have been reared in barn conditions.

Barn Hens - The hens are reared and live their whole lives inside a barn, these normally consist of shed that can house from 10,000 to 30,000 hens at a time. Although they are kept inside, the hens are free to move around the barn. It’s quite normal in this situation for hens to be ‘de-beaked’ this means that the top portion of the beak is lazer removed when they are a chick to stop them from pecking one another and causing harm.

Caged Hens - So the term ‘Battery hens’ used to refer to hens kept in tiny cages by themselves with just food and water. Since 2012, an order came in where this was no longer accpectable- great news! However, they changed it to be called ‘Enriched Caging or Colony Caging’ This basically means that they are still kept inside cages for their whole lives, but they do have a few extra bits; they aren’t on their own. Hens are flock animals so naturally do better living with others, they have the potential to nest, they have the potential to roost, potential to scratch and stretch, all of which are natural behaviours to hens.

So there you go, if you didn’t know, now you do! You can now use this information to make your own decisions on which eggs you choose to buy.

Is Your Hen Lonely?

If you’ve got 1 hen on it’s own, then chances are it’s lonely!

Chickens have a social order. Each chicken takes on an individual role within the flock which is the basis for the pecking order. This starts from the chick hatching all the way through to adult-hood. It’s what keep the peace within the coop.

The cockerel or the top hen looks out for the flock. They keep and eye out and sound out when there’s a predator near the flock. They are also the first to eat and drink before any other member of the flock. You’ll often find 2 or 3 hens grouped together on a daily basis. A lone chicken has no emotional or physical support and they become bored and lonely which can cause stress and can affect their egg production.

Having one lone hen makes them a great prey for predators. It can also effect the during the winter. The hens cuddle up to each other during the colder months to keep warm.

So whats the magic number?

The smallest ideal flock size is three hens for not only egg production but also in case one of them becomes sick or dies, it always leaves two together.

If you find yourself with only one chicken, what should you do?

The best option is to get some flock mates ASAP. Until then, you will need to find adequate protection for your hen, some people opt to bring them in the house, but a predator proof cage works just as well. Plan some entertainment for your chicken by putting new things to eat in the cage or by moving it around to different areas.

How to introduce a new hen

When the happy day arrives that you have found a couple of flock mates for your chicken, it is best to follow some rules to keep the bullying down in the coop.

First, it is best to quarantine the hens for a few days and/or have it checked by your vet to make sure they are healthy before introducing them to your coop.

Then place them in a smaller pen inside of the coop so they can get to know each other before they can physically peck at each other.

Once they are happy enough in each others company, you can let the new hen out and there should be minimal issues and you’ll have a happy flock!

Scaly Leg Mites

We took in 2 hens that a friend of ours was looking after to keep his single hen company. The hens were recently brought back to us, but with Scaly Leg!

Scaly Leg is an infestation caused by a small parasitic mite known as Cnemidocoptes Mutans. This tiny mite lives in the ground or sometimes the floor of the henhouse in damp conditions. It then burrows under the scales of the bird's legs or feet, where it causes great discomfort. It may also infest other areas such as the comb or wattles of chickens.

It doesn't only affect poultry, any scaly-legged bird is susceptible e.g. small garden birds, and these birds can often carry the mite into your chicken run.

The mite causes a multiplication of the tissue cells and the secretion of a serum. The scales are raised, the legs become thickened and have a rough lumpy appearance, often showing what would appear to be a white growth on the leg.

The infection is easily recognised because of the raised scales although the mite are hard to see with the naked eye, they look like tiny white spherical creatures (approximately 0.25-0.5mm in diameter in the early stages).

Scaly Leg Mite is highly contagious and affects birds of all ages, although older birds and feathered leg breeds tend to be more susceptible. It is most common in flocks kept on bare earth, damp ground or in dry litter runs.

In the early stages it would appear to cause very little problem, but should it be neglected the birds lose condition, go lame and have difficulty in perching. If left untreated then further infections can occur and the bird could die.

Any treatment of a bad infestation will not be quick, it will require a number of weeks of constant treatment until finally the encrustations fall off and the scales return to normal. We use a spray that is made of natural materials that really works!

Layers Vs Meat Birds

Many people aren’t aware that there’s actually 2 different types of chicken that are used commercially; Laying hens and Meat hens (otherwise known as Broilers).

The broiler industry has grown due to consumer demand for affordable poultry meat. Breeding for production traits and improved nutrition have been used to increase the weight of the breast muscle. Commercial broiler chickens are bred to be very fast growing in order to gain weight quickly.

Most broilers are taken as day old chicks from the hatchery to their new farms where they live their life. Broilers that are farmed intensively are bred from strains that are very fast growing in order to gain weight quickly and use less feed. Unlike laying hens (kept for egg production), which live for about a year in the intensively farmed corporations, our hens live for about 4 years! Broilers only live for several weeks before they are slaughtered. In the EU, the slaughter age can range from 21 to 170 days but is typically around 5 to 7 weeks. At this age, the broilers bones haven’t even formed properly and tend to be rubbery, there’s been a lot of stories about hens unable to walk because their own weight is too heavy for their under-developed legs!

Globally, over 70% of broiler chickens are raised in quite similar indoor intensive (industrial) farming systems and only a small proportion are reared in less intensive, higher welfare systems. Keeping broiler production indoors, without any access to outside areas can help with pest control. In temperate countries, broiler sheds are closed, climate-controlled (e.g., fan-ventilated) and have artificial lighting.

Chickens in alternative farming systems will have more space (lower stocking densities) and often use chickens from slower-growing breeds with higher welfare outcomes, so the birds are typically slaughtered at an older age than fast-growing breeds. The environment can also be enhanced, for example with indoor enrichment and/or with an outdoor area. In the EU, only a small proportion of commercial broilers are reared in alternative systems. In the US, less than 1% of chickens are raised as ‘free-range’ (the term is used if chickens have access to the outdoors for at least some part of the day).

I’m writing this blog post because as we’re growing our business with all new breeds, we’re incubating so much more to help the rare breeds expand, which leaves us with roughly 60% cockerels to 40% hens each hatch. We’re trying to run our business with as little waste as possible. Most farms would cull the cockerels at such a young age so that they don’t use any of the food that is needed to feed the hens. We grow our cockerels up to ensure that we choose the best to breed from, but this obviously leaves a lot of cockerels with not much use. We’re looking into the idea of using the cockerels for meat to reduce the amount of waste from our farm. The cockerels are all meat and laying breeds like our Light Sussex.

I basically wanted to make you aware of the way that most of the chickens in the supermarket are brought up so you can understand why they are so cheap. Cheapest isn’t always best! You literally get what you pay for.

Our birds are kept to all organic standards, on organic feed and out on the pasture all day long. Our birds also would go to slaughter at about 26 weeks instead of the 8 weeks for broilers. I wanted to get an idea of how many of you would pay extra to have a bird that’s lived a good life and is a very sustainable way of producing organic meat.

If you’ve got any opinions on the above, we’d love to hear them! Please send us an email and let us know your thoughts!

Country Smallholding - Big Smallholder Interview

A few months ago my dad and I were interviewed about the farm and how we came to be. Here’s the whole article for you to read!

If you’re loving this article, then why not look at signing up to a monthly subscription?

My Hen Laid A Weird Egg..

If you’ve had hens before, you’ll know that occasionally your ladies can lay some weird looking eggs! This blog is to help you understand why your hens are producing abnormal eggs.

Double Yolkers.

These are such an amazing find! There’s nothing better than cracking open your egg to find 2 yolks. This can happen when an existing yolk combines with another and the shell forms around both. It’s a hens version of twins. Young pullets and older hens tend to lay these are their egg cycles are just beginning or coming to the end.

Super Tiny Eggs.

Also known as wind, fairy or fart eggs, tiny eggs can be a sign that your hen has just started to lay or that something might be wrong with their production system if they keep laying them. If they are constant, ensure you speak to your vet.

You should always consider the age of the hen if you experience any of the below:

Thin Shelled Eggs

This is usually a sign that your hen needs a bit more calcium in their diet. You can add this in by providing them with Oyster Shell. The hen will then ingest as much as she needs.

Bumpy Eggs

These are abnormal for both young and older hens. This can be caused by excess Vitamin D or Vitamin C in the hens diet.

Very Large Eggs

These tend to be laid by hens coming to the end of their laying cycle.

Stress, Diet or Disease can cause the below abnormalities:

Shell-less or Thin Shelled-Eggs

These are normally due to stress, which causes the eggs to be laid before it’s been completely formed.

Wrinkled Eggs

These are funky looking and can be induced by rough handling of your hens, causing a second yolk to be prematurely released and bumping up against the egg, causing the wrinkles. Another factor that can cause wrinkling is a respiratory infection in the hens.

Eggs with Healed Cracks

These start with a break in the shell during formation but mend during the laying process. The hen experiencing stress during the calcification is the main culprit for this type of egg.

Egg In An Egg

This happens when an egg gets backed up and not laid in a timely manner. The egg actually goes through the last production stages twice. Extreme stress to your poor hen is probably the reason. She may need a spa day complete with a dust bath and mealworms to nibble on.

If you find that you’re experiencing any of the above and have tried to fix the issue but had no luck, make sure to contact your vet to make sure your lovely lady is ok!