Yesterday we found the oddest thing: 2 soft eggs with no yolk the size of quarters-- next to stool (perhaps pieces of the debris from the oddity described below) and 1 soft egg with tissue hanging out and a "red" yolk. I found these pics on the internet with NO INFO on what happened to the hen or what was going on. These pics are EXACTLY what we found. Ours had a soft shell with some albumin and a red-looking yolk and a membrane hanging out of the shell: When the darkened outer cover was opened, there was a yoke inside. Once the yoke was washed away, there was an inner deep red membrane and an outer membrane. The outer membrane contained the fibrous projections seen in the images. ...I don't even know which hen it was from. All hens appeared normal- none with any kind of tissue hanging out of their vents. We have 5 hens... (no roosters) - all about 7 months old, but only 1 (Barred Rock) laid an egg that day. 1 Barred Rock (I think it was her) is an everyday-layer, but went for 3 days without laying. 1 Ameraucana has an impacted crop and stopped laying 2 days before. 1 Buff Orpington has gone broody and stopped laying 2 days earlier. 1 Ameraucana has yet to lay at all. (Did I mention we got back from vacation a few ago-- maybe they're mad at us- like the cat peeing in your slippers) Anyway... Has anyone ever seen anything like this? Did one of our regular layers just lay an ovary or something?!?! I don't know if you can see it in the pics or not, but this membrane actually seemed to have a vascular system all around it, with veins about 1-2mm thick-- like an organ!
Ugh! I'm sorry that I don't have an answer for you, but I'm just itching to see if anyone else does! This is fascinating. (In a rather grotesque way.)
that is so bizarre! I've seen lots of photos of weird eggs, but this is different than any I've seen before.
It is a blood clot or peice of tissue that sloughed off in the oviduct. I have seen them once or twice and hen goes on to lay normally.
We found a duck egg today that looks just like the images in the previous post. Could this be the heat? Or could it be one of the younger ducks learning to lay? Any help would be appreciated.
No knowledge about this, and seems like you got an answer already, but I have to say it...the first series of pictures you got online remind me of a pomegranate.
AccentOnHakes Today 7:54 pm No knowledge about this, and seems like you got an answer already, but I have to say it...the first series of pictures you got online remind me of a pomegranate. Are you trying to get us all to stop eating pomegranate? Yuck.
There have been several posts recently about these types of objects being laid. In Britain, these are known as a "lash" (no idea where they got that name). Basically, the equivalent of uterine fibroid tumors -- excessive tissue growth - in chickens it often gets coated in calcium deposits and mixed with normal egg materials. I guess with a reproductive system that busy, its bound to have problems once in a while.