So today was the day I decided to put brown hen down. She'd been an internal layer for more than a year. As a golden sexlink egg laying machine, she popped out her first eggs at about 16 weeks old. Too young for her own good as she started having problems at about a year old, and stopped comletely at 18 months or so. Kept her around since she still hobbled over for food and showed enthuiasm for life despite the growing mass inside.
Summer is well over now and decided she didn't need to suffer though a cold damp winter. The mild summer days of lounging on bales of straw in the sun were gone.
And this is what I found. Pretty common for "old" production birds. She would have been 4 years old in the spring.
Skinned:
Opened with ovaries exposed:
One of the 4 masses opened:
Really, I should have culled her about a year ago when the problems showed up so she didn't have to suffer with the internal masses pressing on her insides. Liver, heart, gizzard was all healthy in color. Intestines were compacted under the weight of the masses.
Summer is well over now and decided she didn't need to suffer though a cold damp winter. The mild summer days of lounging on bales of straw in the sun were gone.
And this is what I found. Pretty common for "old" production birds. She would have been 4 years old in the spring.
Skinned:
Opened with ovaries exposed:
One of the 4 masses opened:
Really, I should have culled her about a year ago when the problems showed up so she didn't have to suffer with the internal masses pressing on her insides. Liver, heart, gizzard was all healthy in color. Intestines were compacted under the weight of the masses.
