I have never seen this before. I'm guessing it is intestine? It was definitely coming from inside her and was dripping with poop. She was just sitting on her roost and shaking her head. It might be difficult to tell from the photo, but it was every bit of 6" long. Poor sick hen. Whatever...
Thank you for your reply! I feel a little better knowing that it isn't an unusual thing for a young hen. I kept telling myself that I missed something, but maybe I didn't, after all.
I went out to the hen house to let out the chickies this morning, and found one of our sweet little hens dead in the chicken run. There were no signs of external trauma - no blood, nothing was broken. There have been no indications of any sickness in the flock. No lethargy, runny poop, runny...