Creepy Soft Shell Egg...is this one normal? Take a look...

[pinkwindsong]

one of my girls had a shelless egg with a cord attatched. you could see the yoke in it. and it felt like a latex glove incld the powdery feel.. I wanted to take a pic of it but my daughter got grossed out and threw it out. bummer.. I don't know who laid it and right now none of my girls are laying normally so still no hlep there to figure it out.

 

[SteveBaz]

that is creepy. Did you crack it open to see?

Steve

 

[lollimama]

Hmmm...now I'm a bit worried! After reading that other thread about this - that picture did look like this egg. No, we haven't cracked it open to find out what it looks like - my husband has been soaking it in salt water to see if it would grow (gross He thought it could be a good 'osmosis' experiment for the boys). It hasn't grown overnight though which means that the membrane/shell must be pretty thick! It does feel like a latex glove filled with goo - that's a great description!

Right now Rosie is in the nestbox so we'll see what happens this morning. She is otherwise acting normally, has free choice oyster shell etc. but I NEVER see anyone munching on it so maybe I'll mash up some egg shells and see if those are more popular. We have done a TON of work to get her back to mint condition so it's a real bummer if she's met her end!! When she came to us she had NO feathers on her neck or bum and she looked like a frail turken from being pecked at! Now she's just starting to take on that lovely Buff Orpington look -full feathers and all. But, like I said before, she's been on Duramycin for 7 days now (this is the first day off of it) for the sniffles and sneezing. Maybe she's just getting back into the swing of things? It seems that the descriptions of ovaries that have been shed are much more graphic and strange. But since you guys are saying it looks like something reproductive that concerns me....hm.

 

[lollimama]

Ok, so she's spent the whole morning sitting in the nestbox. I keep checking on her and she clearly wants privacy...Doesn't seem like her normal self today, usually she's pretty perky and can't wait to roam around the yard. Could this be eggbound behavior? Is it normal for a 2 year old hen to stop laying all together? I'm not exactly sure of her age since we aquired her from some friends a few months ago. Ugh, the chicken drama!

 

[lollimama]

Well, just to follow up on this, Rosie sad in the nest box yesterday morning and the day before but no egg. We've been putting basketballs in the nestboxes since another one has been sleeping in there, so this morning I went out there kind of late (8:30ish) and there was a perfect egg laying *splat* under the roost! It was a light brown egg with a healthy strong shell, just broken in 1/2 from the fall out of the roost. She's the only possible one who could've laid it in my estimation since we really aren't seeing the signs from the others yet (although, they are at 21 and 18 weeks). I'm crossing my fingers that she's getting back into the swing of things! I would LOVE to hear from someone who has had this weird egg with a tail experience before and how it resolved....if their hen went back to laying normally?