I'm not sure which thread to put this question in, so I hope I've chosen right.
I'm temporarily off chicken duty due to foot surgery, so DH is doing most of the stuff I've been doing for two years. He asked me to bring this up to the group, since he knows he will get an answer. LOL
The last three days, he has gotten an egg from one of the nest boxes, and each time the egg has a small hole in one end of it. The egg that I saw this evening, had not been dropped, and there is no indication of anything coming out of the egg. I believe it is just the shell that is open...I can see the membrane inside the tiny hole. Does anyone know what is causing this? I have to suspect that the chicken is actually pecking the hole in the egg....seems like I might have heard about that before. But she isn't eating the egg...it is completely intact except for that one little hole. I had two chickens once, brooding side by side on several eggs, and one day I found an egg from each of them that they had been sitting on, that suddenly had a hole like this. I decided they probably knew something was not right, and pecked the hole and then each moved their egg completely out of the nest. Pretty fascinating, I thought. I don't remember if the egg was still intact, or if the shell was empty.
Any thoughts or ideas or bits of knowledge will be greatly appreciated. I read this board over and over every day, and have learned so much and enjoyed everyone's stories and ideas more than I can say. I'm really missing not being out with my babies, but doc says no go until the pins are out of the toes (triple yuk) and everything is completely healed, which will be a few weeks yet. There is too much of a risk for infection, and I wouldn't want to even take a chance. I'm hoping DH will have a new appreciation not only for the chickens, but for the effort I put into the whole thing to keep them healthy and happy for the most part! He suspects that I'm crazy though! LOL
Thank you all.
I'm temporarily off chicken duty due to foot surgery, so DH is doing most of the stuff I've been doing for two years. He asked me to bring this up to the group, since he knows he will get an answer. LOL
The last three days, he has gotten an egg from one of the nest boxes, and each time the egg has a small hole in one end of it. The egg that I saw this evening, had not been dropped, and there is no indication of anything coming out of the egg. I believe it is just the shell that is open...I can see the membrane inside the tiny hole. Does anyone know what is causing this? I have to suspect that the chicken is actually pecking the hole in the egg....seems like I might have heard about that before. But she isn't eating the egg...it is completely intact except for that one little hole. I had two chickens once, brooding side by side on several eggs, and one day I found an egg from each of them that they had been sitting on, that suddenly had a hole like this. I decided they probably knew something was not right, and pecked the hole and then each moved their egg completely out of the nest. Pretty fascinating, I thought. I don't remember if the egg was still intact, or if the shell was empty.
Any thoughts or ideas or bits of knowledge will be greatly appreciated. I read this board over and over every day, and have learned so much and enjoyed everyone's stories and ideas more than I can say. I'm really missing not being out with my babies, but doc says no go until the pins are out of the toes (triple yuk) and everything is completely healed, which will be a few weeks yet. There is too much of a risk for infection, and I wouldn't want to even take a chance. I'm hoping DH will have a new appreciation not only for the chickens, but for the effort I put into the whole thing to keep them healthy and happy for the most part! He suspects that I'm crazy though! LOL
Thank you all.
