Worlds smallest egg

[MotherMal13]

Whats inside it?

 

[feather leg farms]

My bantam cochins lay those!!!!

 

[gordonburrito]

Wow those look like the eggs my old cockatiels used to lay! How big is the hen that laid that?

 

[Firemenlovechicks]

Quote:
soak it in some warm chicken milk......... see if it hatches.

 

[jibmaster]

I've got two smaller chickens that lay smaller white/offwhite eggs. So, it could have been my White Cochin or my Mille Fleur.
I've had chickens for about two years now, and only had one other egg that was unusually small. It was a brown egg from a Barred Rock, Golden Buff, or Rhode Island Red.
Now I'm waiting for a small egg from one of my Ameraucana's.

Speaking of my Ameraucana's, one of them died yesterday. It was attacked. I'm suspecting one of my Rhode Island Red that's acting out the part of the rooster - since I have no roosters.
Could have been a hawk, but the circumstances don't support that theory.

The situation:

Chickens are in a fenced in pen. Hard for a hawk to maneuver.
5 or 6 weed-wackers cutting the grass right next door - literally, the fence borders the vineyard.
No sign of a breach in the fence by a four legged intruder.
The attack happened where all the feathers where, and moved down about ten feet.
I could tell, because I have artichokes planted in the pen that are fenced off with a four foot high fence (experiment).
The artichoke fence was busted through with force (plastic fence, staked down).
The chicken was found twenty feet further.
Decapitated with a large section of the back pecked free of feathers.

Later that day, I find my Red, who is obviously running the show, attacking my Mille Fleur.
More aggressive than usual. I haven't seen the dominating Red beat up another chicken that bad before.
I felt so bad for the poor little Mille Fleur, I pulled them apart.
And the Red continued her vicious attack on other birds later that day.

How common is it for a lead hen to kill other hens?

 

[RainbowBirds_of_a_Feather]

I have had eggs like those laid by my flock... Cock eggs!! (Well that is what I read in a book.) These eggs are so tini-tiny that it often throws me off when i go to collect and find an egg like that in my nest boxes. I had one of my school kids use one for a baby egg project. All the other students were passing it around in amazement, it was so cute.

 

[RainbowBirds_of_a_Feather]

Quote:
Wow i just noticed this...

Um...first sorry to hear about your loss.

Plus I am unsure of the type of predators you have in your area. For the hens to bust through a fence that means some type of predator, in my book. Unless the gals got spooked by the weed-wackers, broke the fence, and then a predator destroyed one. But the aggressive RIR, possible, some RIR are aggressive. I had a trouble maker too, I just placed her in an adjacent pen in the main coop to let her settle and get reacquainted with the rest of the flock. But when I placed her back she was out for blood on my other birds, especially my banties. My trouble maker would not relent on my dominant banty so I just moved all my banties to another cage and the trouble maker was queen of that flock. You may want to rehouse her that RIR or place your banties in their own peaceful quarters. Or remove the trouble bird for good. I know other BYC-ers can also give you advice aswell.

 

[Mahonri]

Here is a pic of one of my "wind" eggs.

It's the one in the middle.

 

[jibmaster]

Raccoons or possums would be the predators along with dogs. Lost 3 chickens to dogs before.
There is a cinder block structure - an old smoker - that I use for the hen house. It's surrounded by chicken wire.
That's the coop.
The coop is surrounded by a 5 foot high fence - the perimeter fence.
This happened outside the coop, yet within the perimeter fence. I don't think that a 'coon or possum would even approach the chickens with 5 or 6 people weed-wacking 10 feet away.
There is little room for a hawk to swoop in (I think...) - hence the reason for this setup. Lost a chicken to a hawk before as well.
The little fence around the artichoke plant is flimsy and staked down with sticks. It simply keeps the chickens away from the base of the plant. This fence was pummeled with force and bent back and over. Branches of the artichoke plant were affected.
The chicken ended up 15-20 further down. Still warm.
The other chickens were huddled in the coop all spooked.

The other weird thing, is that I had wildflowers planted in the artichoke pen. They had just come up and were about 3-4 inches tall.
The chickens had time to devour the first half of these plants...

I'll take a video of the chicken coop tomorrow.

But just the violent actions of my lead Red the rest of the afternoon, lead me to believe that she's guilty.
She must have ate the head, because it was not to be found.

Ironically, the friendliest chicken I have is a Rhode Island Red. She always comes up to me and wants to sit on my lap.
She likes to be petted, scratched and russled up just like a cat!

Chickens are weird.

 

[RainbowBirds_of_a_Feather]

Quote:
That is odd and if that is the culprit "lead Red" I hope she stops soon. Also I would love to see pics/ video so I can get a true visual. The Mean hen id bleed out one of the gals I had, when she was attempting to be queen, and the beat up hen needed to go into quarantine to heal her featherless head. But she grew back her feathers. Some breeds have varying temperaments that could be why that hen is acting out but again there could be other factors. Again sorry about your loss.