Hard leathery reddish-orange mass found on poo pile

[wordup]

This afternoon I was cleaning out the poop from the droppings board and I found this (egg shown for size comparison):




It resembles a date, but is much harder. While I was pretty certain it was not a date (I don't know how one would have ended up in the coop), I cut it open to be sure:




Definitely not a date. My googling has turned up no information as to what this may be so far. Has anyone here ever seen anything like this before? I have four hens that are about three years old. They have all been molting, but look to be about done, and one of them has a slightly pale comb. Their egg production has been way down, because of the molting and winter, I assume. I've also been getting a lot of broken eggs with very weak shells for the last two months or so, even though I mix in oyster shells to the feed in the same ratio I always have. Outside of these symptoms, I haven't noticed anything else out of the ordinary.

Here is an album with a few more pictures.

 

[dawg53]

It's called "Lash." Here's a couple of links w/ pics for you:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/637090/my-first-lash-egg-experience
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/473989/weird-egg-weird-clump-lash-graphic-pics

 

[Michael Apple]

Haha. Put it up for a bid on Ebay. Someone will buy it. Seriously though, I've had difficulty finding scientific info on this lash I heard about some years ago. I only saw it once in a Golden Sex Link.

 

[wordup]

Thanks for your replies... As an update, the hen who had been showing a pale comb for the last few weeks now is exhibiting a nice bright and rosy one. I have no way of knowing for sure, but I'm thinking that is was her who had this 'lash', and that she should be ok now. Hope I'm right.

 

[LadyofChickRose]

From the look of it I think it's probably some tissue from inside the hen that was pooped out and perhaps was encased in eggshell and probably is nothing to worry about, I say that because I did a year of reaserch before I got chickens and came across a description of a similar case and an answer in the poultry mag I'm subscribed to, so please just research a bit more before taking this to heart.