WildHens
Chirping
I have a hen that I've only had about 2 months. She's supposedly about a year and half old. When I first got her, laying was sporadic (about 3 eggs a week) AND she was an egg eater. She came from a very cramped pen, never walked on grass, and I seriously question her previous diet and care being anything above subpar at best..
Once here, she and her rooster were given a huge pen and run, all the grass they could handle (it was knee deep on me), free access to oyster shells, quality feed, meal worms, dewormed, etc..
Egg eating stopped about 3 weeks in, and that was followed about 2 weeks later by a total stop in laying.
Otherwise, she acts completely healthy, goes out and free ranges around her yard, gets bugs and all that ..just no eggs..
So today when I was filling feeders and freshing her nest box (which the rooster has taken to sleeping in, so it was full of poo) I saw what at first looked like a broody poop.. so I pulled the nest box out to get a better look (yes, I'm gross like that)..
And found this thing that made me cringe.
There's a stringy thing on one end that looks like the..well can't remember the technical term, but the spiral thing that holds the yolk in place.
There was a membrane surrounding it that looks pretty much normal, zero sign of anything resembling a shell..
I cut it open, one side of that membrane thing was very thick (tried to capture that in the last picture), there was nothing to suggest infection inside this thing, yolk was thick, very thick really.. and there was definitely blood in the membrane part, but don't think so muck on the inside..
I've heard of lash eggs, and soft eggs, etc..but I honestly don't believe this was caused by an egg forming around a piece of tissue or anything..I scraped it all out looking for something foreign and didn't see anything.
Anyways..should I put this hen on antibiotics to be safe? What on earth would cause this??
Once here, she and her rooster were given a huge pen and run, all the grass they could handle (it was knee deep on me), free access to oyster shells, quality feed, meal worms, dewormed, etc..
Egg eating stopped about 3 weeks in, and that was followed about 2 weeks later by a total stop in laying.
Otherwise, she acts completely healthy, goes out and free ranges around her yard, gets bugs and all that ..just no eggs..
So today when I was filling feeders and freshing her nest box (which the rooster has taken to sleeping in, so it was full of poo) I saw what at first looked like a broody poop.. so I pulled the nest box out to get a better look (yes, I'm gross like that)..
And found this thing that made me cringe.
There's a stringy thing on one end that looks like the..well can't remember the technical term, but the spiral thing that holds the yolk in place.
There was a membrane surrounding it that looks pretty much normal, zero sign of anything resembling a shell..
I cut it open, one side of that membrane thing was very thick (tried to capture that in the last picture), there was nothing to suggest infection inside this thing, yolk was thick, very thick really.. and there was definitely blood in the membrane part, but don't think so muck on the inside..
I've heard of lash eggs, and soft eggs, etc..but I honestly don't believe this was caused by an egg forming around a piece of tissue or anything..I scraped it all out looking for something foreign and didn't see anything.
Anyways..should I put this hen on antibiotics to be safe? What on earth would cause this??