Saving Your Egg-Bound Hen

By JJ Testa

 

For many fanciers an egg bound hen means certain death, and when it comes to a top producer the loss is sometimes irreplaceable. Saving an egg-bound hen is easy and done in such a fashion that she will not lose the ability to breed again the following year.

 

Let’s first look at the cause, most fanciers like to get a head start on the breeding season when hens instinctively are not ready to go through the natural process of the brood cycle. Some fanciers will use lights to create a longer day; some just put the pairs together to soon after breaking them up not giving the hen time to rest and of course not preparing the hen for a 3 round course in the breeding season.

 

Conditioning The Hen for Breeding

 

We all read about how to condition our rollers but it seems not too many of us take heed, an old timer once said to me a healthy pigeon will tell you how  healthy it is by the eye and feather,  the eye will shine like glass and the feather will be as smooth as silk. In essence the bird is in condition.

 

I have stuck with the old proven methods of conditioning, I won't get into worming and medications here, but the old tried and true methods that are what they today call holistic, or what I call natural. The old timers called it "pumping them up" or "greasing the hens". There are 5 natural ingredients that will aid a hen in producing healthy eggs without the problem of egg-binding:

 

1. • Wheat germ Oil
   • Dandelion leaves
   • Cuttlebone
   • Iodine
   • Oyster shell

In the old days we would walk along the beach and pick up Clam, Periwinkle, and Muscle shells and crush them up for the birds. You couldn’t buy oyster shells in those days; Calcium makes the egg; Dandelion gives the birds Carotene, Wheat germ oil sets the canal up for easy passage of the egg. All these ingredients are essential for conditioning a hen to breed.

                                                       

Egg-Binding And Removal,

 

The normal passage of an egg from the canal to the vent can only be done when the egg is soft and pliable. If the shell becomes hard in the canal this is when the hen becomes egg-bound.

 

There are 5 implements necessary to remove the egg from an egg bound hen:

 

1. • Wheat germ oil
   • Tweezers
   • Syringe
   • Teabag
   • Boiling water

 

There are 2 ways to remove the egg, let’s start with the first and easiest:

 

1. • First you must cut the feathers around the vent up to where the keel bone ends at the vent.
   • Boil a teabag in a pan for steam and...
   • Apply 5 drops of warmed wheat germ oil into the vent via a syringe with the needle removed.
   • Holding the hens vent over the steam from the teabag you are relaxing the vent muscles that have been paralyzed due to the hens constant pushing trying to get the egg out.
   • Hold the hen over the steam for a minute or two; don’t let the steam get too close to the skin so she won’t burn.
   • Continue the steaming for 10 minutes at one minute intervals.
   • Inject ten more drops of warmed wheat germ oil into the vent. (The reason for the wheat germ oil is to help the relaxing of the vent muscles and softening the egg shell, and lubricating the egg canal, she may pass the egg in the ten minutes, if not, rest the hen for twenty minutes, keep her warm. Try the whole process over again)

 She will usually drop the egg at this time, if she doesn’t don’t panic. Rest her again for 20 minutes…

 

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Collapsing The Egg And Removing

 

Remember, you want to breed this hen so you cannot damage her vent area. The process is the same except for a little twist:

 

1. • After you have lubed the vent and steamed her you want to spread the vent and you will see a membrane that is in front of the egg, try not to damage this membrane.
   • Try to move that membrane till you see that it no longer sits in front of the egg.
   • Put the needle back on the syringe and puncture the egg shell, suck out the fluids that are in the egg, that will be the white and the yolk.
   • Try to remove it all.
   • Rest the hen again. (Again you want to heat up the vent and saturate the vent and canal as much as you can with the warm wheat germ oil)
   • Try to move the oil around the egg.
   • You will see the outline of the egg and you will be able to feel it.
   • If there is anyone with you, have them start calling you Doctor.
   • Place your thumb at the back of the vent and try to push the egg out.
   • If the egg isn’t moving, crush it with your thumb, but do that gently so as not to have a lot of sharp eggshells in the canal. (The wheat germ oil and the steam should have softened the shell so It will collapse whole)
   • Now try to grasp the shell or parts of the shell with the tweezers, and remove them.
   • Once that shell has been collapsed, the muscles will have become viable again and the hen should pass the remains naturally.

 

Remember, heat, steam, lubricate, that’s the key, the rest is common sense. Even if the hen does not pass the shell that day, she will start to perk up because the egg is no longer giving her discomfort, I would not try to breed the hen that year.

 

* This article is intended for informational purposes only. Seek the advise of a veterinarian before performing any procedure that could potentially harm your pigeons. Publisher