What killed my hen?

[bethanyms]

Hi everyone, I sadly found one of my hens dead in our coop today (she's only a year old). When I moved her out, there was a very strange looking egg thing underneath her - it was gray, squishy, and had no shell. I had noticed I hadn't been getting as many eggs recently, but I figured it was something to do with the heat. Now I'm guessing it was that weird egg, but would that have been what killed the hen? I didn't notice any odd behavior before today, only the egg shortage.

I'm concerned about the other hens. I just want to make sure whatever happened to this one doesn't happen to the others!

 

[CoCovey]

I would guess she was egg bound but I wouldn’t know for sure. Was she previously squatting? Usually an egg bound hen will squat trying to push the egg out for long periods of time.

 

[coach723]

Do you have a picture of what you found?

 

[Sussex19]

Sounds like it could possibly have been a lash egg, which would point to a reproductive problem/infection, but one would need a photo to be sure.
I think something reproductive would be the most likely cause, in any case.
So sorry you lost her.

 

[bethanyms]

I should have taken pictures. It didn't occur to me until after I had cleaned everything up! I hadn't noticed any squatting, but that doesn't mean she wasn't.