I just went to the coop to fill the feeder and collect eggs this morning, all the birds were out in the yard. Under their roost I discovered something that looked like a reddish brown kiwi fruit. This was odd to me, because I don't grow kiwis, though I wouldn't be surprised to see them take some fallen fruit into the coop if they had found something interesting. I have a hoe in the coop that I use to stir up the shavings and poop under the roost, so I pulled it toward me a little with the hoe. It had a soft leathery texture, and was QUITE large (for an egg)- kiwi sized, but with a rough surface. I gave it a whack with the hoe, and there was a yolk inside. No hard shell whatsoever.
I wish I had taken a picture, but I was so horrified I quickly covered it with shavings.
Thinking back now, I'm worried that it may have had some organ coating it, like a bird lost something in a really awful prolapse (does that ever happen?) Needless to say this is worrying, there are a couple girls that are older and haven't been laying lately, even since their coopmates have restarted.
Everybody looks normal, they are all out wandering the yard and scratching for bugs. My birds are pretty wild; they come up to me expecting treats but none will allow me to pick them up, and I know that my trying to catch them in the day will only result in them panicking and even possibly flying over the fence, so I plan to get in the coop tonight and check their vents.
If the color was indicative of the normal shell color, the reddish brown would lead me to check on the two marans and one welsummer, but the marans are new layers. One of the marans is quite large and does normally lay an egg that is near to that size.
I've seen torpedo eggs, big eggs, eggs with double yolks, and weird tiny eggs with no yolk; but I've never seen anything like this. I feed a mix of layer and flockraiser, my birds also get lots of bugs and grass- lots of grass right now because the rain has brought up young "fox tail" grass all over. They have access to lots of oyster shell and I give them their own egg shells back. Lately they've been given lots of excess collard greens, chard, and brussels leaves from the garden.
Anybody ever seen something like this? Would you think its something dangerous or just a normal "bodys can be weird" moments?
Thanks for anybody who took time to read all this, I'd appreciate any advice.
Thanks,
Tom
I wish I had taken a picture, but I was so horrified I quickly covered it with shavings.
Thinking back now, I'm worried that it may have had some organ coating it, like a bird lost something in a really awful prolapse (does that ever happen?) Needless to say this is worrying, there are a couple girls that are older and haven't been laying lately, even since their coopmates have restarted.
Everybody looks normal, they are all out wandering the yard and scratching for bugs. My birds are pretty wild; they come up to me expecting treats but none will allow me to pick them up, and I know that my trying to catch them in the day will only result in them panicking and even possibly flying over the fence, so I plan to get in the coop tonight and check their vents.
If the color was indicative of the normal shell color, the reddish brown would lead me to check on the two marans and one welsummer, but the marans are new layers. One of the marans is quite large and does normally lay an egg that is near to that size.
I've seen torpedo eggs, big eggs, eggs with double yolks, and weird tiny eggs with no yolk; but I've never seen anything like this. I feed a mix of layer and flockraiser, my birds also get lots of bugs and grass- lots of grass right now because the rain has brought up young "fox tail" grass all over. They have access to lots of oyster shell and I give them their own egg shells back. Lately they've been given lots of excess collard greens, chard, and brussels leaves from the garden.
Anybody ever seen something like this? Would you think its something dangerous or just a normal "bodys can be weird" moments?
Thanks for anybody who took time to read all this, I'd appreciate any advice.
Thanks,
Tom
