Tiny egg - but they're sooo young..?

[DayKay]

We had two very, very odd things happen and I wondered if anyone else had anything similar!

Hubby gave me 6 baby chicks (Wyndottes) and 6 baby ducklings (mallards) for my birthday. We've been keeping them together, away from the 7 full grown hens, and all 12 babies were doing fine, I thought.

Yesterday morning, when I went out to let the big girls out and move the babies from their inside pen to their outside pen for the day, two strange things:

1. an itty bitty egg in their contained pen in the coop. No way a big girl got in there. These chicks/ducks are only 5 weeks old.
2. a dead Wyndotte.

Any ideas about either? There shouldn't be any way a 5 week old (chick or duck!) could lay an egg - should there??

Would a mouse/rat kill a chicken in the barn? Would the other chickens kill her? Could she have just up and died? Did laying the egg kill her in childbirth (my daughter's suggestion)?

Very curious!

 

[duckyfromoz]

What a stange and sad thing to find. Sorry about your loss.
Not possible a five week old could have laid he egg- gosh- they wouldnt even be fully feathered yet. Do you have wild birds that get into the coop- maybe a pigeon or something else laid the egg.
A rat could kill a bird that size- Did you see any puncture or bite marks on the bird at all?

 

[lowcountrypoultry]

That would also be my guess, a small bird could have laid the egg.

As far as the chicken, I have had signs of rats attacking my birds before. Never killed one though...

But at so young, its very possible. If there is no sign or puntures or a struggle, my best guess is it was just it's time to go

 

[katharinad]

I would search for a snake hard and heavy. Could be a snake egg, and that snake may have killed the bird.

 

[Amiga]

Could you tell us more about their housing and its history and location?

 

[sianara]

Quote:
That's what I was thinking too.