What on earth.......??? WEIRD egg...

[mylittlezoo]

Occasionally, an elderly Golden Comet I have lays a soft shelled egg. But today, she presented me with this:

What on earth...?? Ideas, anyone? I'm bemused and vaguely grossed out... lol. This is a new one on me.

 

[Nature Watcher]

I have had soft shelled eggs but nothing like that.

 

[RubberChickenLubber]

I had an egg similar to that a few weeks ago, but mine was a whole egg w/shell inside a shelless/yolkless membrane, but same "tail"

 

[chickbea]

You weren't kidding when you titled this thread - eeek!
If I had to take a guess, I would say that some shell material had coated the inside of the oviduct, and when the next egg came down and was covered with shell, it also pulled that coating through inside out, sort of like an inverted sausage casing. That's just a guess, though. I think I'd send a picture to a University's poultry department - they'd probably like to take a look at that!

 

[chickbea]

OK - while I was posting mine RubberChickenLubber's post came through. Now THAT is the weirdest thing I have ever seen, hands down! Is that the color it came out? Egads!

 

[RubberChickenLubber]

Yes, I have one hen that lays a terra cotta colored egg, and it's hers. I'm thinking it's my red sexlink, but not 100% sure.

 

[mylittlezoo]

That's a good idea, I think I'll send it to the local University. Also, my neighbor is a major source of info, so perhaps I'll email it to him.

Rubberchickenlubber - if I'd found a shell-less egg that color I think it would've sent me shrieking from the coop! As it was I backed out with an 'ewwwwww' expression and had to go back in to pick it up!!

 

[RubberChickenLubber]

It's not a completely shell-less egg. There's a fully formed egg, complete with shell, inside the outer shell-less egg. Almost like the full egg backed up in the system and then got the egg white and membrane wrapped around it.

 

[mylittlezoo]

I see that now.... I don't think I understand enough about how eggs are formed and laid... time to do some reading.