Blood on Egg Shell

[labo47]

We have one Brahma rooster and 30 hens of various breeds (only 1 female Brahma - the rest being Wellsummers, Dominiques, Barred Plymouth Rocks, Americaunas, Arancona, Andalusian, and others). One Dominique laid a bloody-shelled egg with a gush of blood and died the next day. Now, we find that another hen (don't know which) is laying bloody-shelled eggs. Is the Brahma rooster just too big for these hens and causing the problem by mating with them, or is the reason something else. Thanks.

 

[Judy]

I don't think anything about the way they mate would cause this (though I'm no expert.) I wonder if there is some intestinal illness going on. Or it could be coincidence, some problem in the egg laying machinery.

I have a link to a university writeup that lists symptoms and suggests causes. I didn't check it for your problem, but it's a handy link to have, anyway:

http://www.poultry.msstate.edu/extension/pdf/diseases_poultry_diagnosis_symptoms.pdf