OK. My mind is totally blown! What is this!?!?

[New Chick In The Backyard]

I am new to chickens. I have one hen that is laying and the rest are young pullets that are very close to the general age of laying. I found a big piece of what looks like skin. I had no idea what it was so I smelled it and it smelled like raw chicken so I know it came from one of my chickies. What in the WORLD is this? I hope they are ok. Please help ASAP.
On a probable unrelated note my ISA Brown hen that is laying is so skinny and sometimes she lays eggs everyday and when it get extremely hot outside she stopped laying eggs for 8 days, went back to laying about an egg a day. Recently layed 2 eggs in one day and none the next. Is this related? I have enclosed a photo of something weird she did in the coop. She has nest boxes that she lays in, one in particular that she favors but sometime between last night and this afternoon I noticed that all the hay has been pushed to the back of the coop like shes trying to make a nest?? Any info would be appreciated.

 

[Cassandra Lana]

I would check your birds for injuries that definitely looks like skin

 

[Ribh]

How old is your ISA? They are generally short lived birds bred for high production for about 18 months & an early death. Birds @ the end of their laying life can lay some weird things.

In nature chickens will dig down into the earth to lay their eggs. This insulates them & supports them in such a way it helps the hen to cover them. Your hen may just be reverting to a natural instinct. She is unlikely to be broody or you would notice other things about her behaviour.

I'm not sure about the weird things. Can you give some perspective as to size by putting it against a ruler or something?

 

[demonic]

I am new to chickens. I have one hen that is laying and the rest are young pullets that are very close to the general age of laying. I found a big piece of what looks like skin. I had no idea what it was so I smelled it and it smelled like raw chicken so I know it came from one of my chickies. What in the WORLD is this? I hope they are ok. Please help ASAP.
On a probable unrelated note my ISA Brown hen that is laying is so skinny and sometimes she lays eggs everyday and when it get extremely hot outside she stopped laying eggs for 8 days, went back to laying about an egg a day. Recently layed 2 eggs in one day and none the next. Is this related? I have enclosed a photo of something weird she did in the coop. She has nest boxes that she lays in, one in particular that she favors but sometime between last night and this afternoon I noticed that all the hay has been pushed to the back of the coop like shes trying to make a nest?? Any info would be appreciated.

That definitely looks like skin. I don’t think the ISA brown situation is related to this because I’ve had hens who did that when stressed but I would check all my chickens closely to examine whose skin it is

 

[MissE]

Is it a soft shell?

 

[Ldolan]

Omgggggggggg

 

[Kiki]

What exactly do you feed your birds?

 

[Ascholten]

The stop laying, start laying, because it's hot, is kind of normal. That smells like chicken thing, did one of them push out it's V jay jay ??

They will arrange the straw in the nesting box the way they want it, they get broody / moody sometimes and will redecorate... it's what wimmin do! Id not worry about it too much but with that make sure you dig down a bit in it, you can re distribute it if you want, to make sure there are no eggs buried you overlooked.

Aaron

Edit: that's not really a lot of hay to begin with, they are just trying to make some padding for their eggs to rest on I'd think.

 

[Ldolan]

It might be its vent

 

[New Chick In The Backyard]

Here are 2 more photos. I'm sorry the table its laying on looks gross. I'm so exhausted and thats the table someone just donated to me to do dust baths (hence the white powder) and food fill ups. I havent had a chance to clean it yet.

I will have to check them in the morning because they are all in their coops and it just got dark outside. I can't imagine that the skin came from the outside. It seems like it must have come from the inside. I was hoping it meant another pullet was about to lay. I'm so worried.

Her eggs are humongous and the shells started out super hard and have softened just a tiny bit over time. I can't ever get her to eat egg shell but they are still hard, harder than store bought eggs.

Food - I provide all of them chicken starter at all times. My laying hen gets starter and laying pellet and she chooses what she wants to eat. In the morning i put all the food pales out so they eat what they want, mostly starter. I occasionally give them scratch and meal worms for treats. I have been recently giving them watermelon, corn, green beans, celery, and yogurt. They are just now interested in that kind of thing. Since my hen is laying I put all the food in one spot and she eats a pretty good bit because she is the only one that can get to it. Otherwise she isn't interested. When she is done I make sure all the other get some.

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RIBH - I am so saddened to hear that. I have an old post (April 17 shortly after I bought her) that has info you might be interested in if you are trying to help me. What do you mean they can lay some weird things? What age does she look like? If you read the post here is some updated info: She has been laying as I explained. Her feces doesn't smell like poison anymore but she always has corn and seeds in it when she gets that for treats. She gets plenty of grit from the yard and Ive even supplemented and it might not be as bad but its still there and the other chickens feces isnt like that. She now squats and lets me pick her up. She is very interested in me. Didn't take much to get there with her.