Egg with poop

[ChickenMomsince2025]

One of my hens keeps laying eggs with poop. The poop is normal healthy poop. It's soft but solid enough to pick it off the egg easily. The coop is clean. Nesting box is always free of poop. Is this a behavioral thing or does she have a problem with holding poop while laying? Her vent is clean but little bits of poop tends to get stuck on down feathers right below her vent. I think because she was sitting on it while laying. Is this normal?

 

[thecatumbrella]

Is she a new layer? Is it a lot of poop or just a little smudge?

I find some of my new layers tend to get dribble butt (which clings to the feathers as a white liquid). I'll give them a bit of a trim back there with safety scissors, and that seems to fix the problem for me.

Hoping your issue is as simple as that! But if you have concerns that it's something more, please post photos of her vent area and droppings.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I had a hen that did that. Are you familiar with the plumbing where the egg and poop come out of the same vent? It's two different systems but they use the vent to exit the body. When she lays an egg a small portion of the egg-laying system sticks out a little bit to protect the egg from the poop system. It usually keeps the egg clean. I think with my hen the plumbing was not right, that when she laid an egg it squeezed a bit of poop out and onto the egg. It was not every time she laid an egg but a lot of the time.

I think it is just a fault with the hen and how her body is put together down there. I'd wash it off of the egg and refrigerate the egg until I used it. I don't think there is a fix.

 

[ChickenMomsince2025]

Is she a new layer? Is it a lot of poop or just a little smudge?

I find some of my new layers tend to get dribble butt (which clings to the feathers as a white liquid). I'll give them a bit of a trim back there with safety scissors, and that seems to fix the problem for me.

Hoping your issue is as simple as that! But if you have concerns that it's something more, please post photos of her vent area and droppings.

She's 9 months old so relatively new layer. It used to be just once in a while but now it's all the time. It's normal amount of poop. She's heaviest too 6.2lb in November. Google says that's normal weight for Black Australorp. She might have gotten fatter since then though. Lol I'll trim her feathers tomorrow. Thanks for the suggestion! I'll post a picture when she does it again. Thanks!

 

[ChickenMomsince2025]

I had a hen that did that. Are you familiar with the plumbing where the egg and poop come out of the same vent? It's two different systems but they use the vent to exit the body. When she lays an egg a small portion of the egg-laying system sticks out a little bit to protect the egg from the poop system. It usually keeps the egg clean. I think with my hen the plumbing was not right, that when she laid an egg it squeezed a bit of poop out and onto the egg. It was not every time she laid an egg but a lot of the time.

I think it is just a fault with the hen and how her body is put together down there. I'd wash it off of the egg and refrigerate the egg until I used it. I don't think there is a fix.

Okay, thanks. I can deal with poop. It's fairly easy to clean. I was just worried that it might be a sign of some organ failure. It sounds like some hens are just this way