egg poop?

[dantodd]

I have 3 pullets who are egg laying age. (23 weeks or so.) 2 Delawares and a RIR. 2 of the chickens (I don't know which) are laying eggs. This evening I found the 2 Delawares eating what looked like the insides of an egg mixed in with a large poop, they seemed to be picking the "egg" out and trying to not eat the poop. It was sort of late so the colors were hard to discern but I'm pretty sure there was a yolk and there was a lot of clear liquid the consistency of albumen. There was nothing that looked like even a partial or soft shell anywhere near the poop.

Is it relatively "normal" for pullet to make something that looks like that when she first starts laying? Is this anything I should be concerned with? (the combined poop and "egg," not the egg eating behavior.)


thanks in advance.

 

[Farm_Maven]

yeah, it is very possible one will lay shell-less while "warming up the works". And they will often opportunistically eat the shell-less egg. I think it's instinctual, to keep the egg from getting smelly and attracting predators.

 

[dantodd]

I had red that it is not uncommon for a shell less egg to happen early. I just thought it would be laid in the nest box like any other egg. I didn't expect it to come out with poop or to be in the middle of the yard rather than in the nest box. Hopefully it indicates that our last chicken in this batch is ready to start laying.

 

[ChickiKat]

we many times have found eggs out in the middle of the run, recently someone has started laying under the feed rail.... crazy chickens!

 

[mikeh88]

dont worry too much about what ur chickens eat....

 

[dantodd]

Quote:
Yeah, it isn't the eating I was worried about. Those girls will eat almost anything. I was more concerned about both poop and an "egg" coming out of the vent at the same time. I didn't know if this was some indication of something wrong with one of them, but it sounds like this is within the normal range.