Unidentified thing in nest box

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Tallulah

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Hi all

Here I am again! Yesterday I discovered first thing in the morning a strange thing in the nest box surrounded by egg white - no shell found but what on earth could it be? :shock: The only way of describing it is it had the texture of cooked chicken but with no smell. All my 5 girls are fine so no clues there. I am attaching a couple of photos to see if anyone has ever had a similar thing with their chooks. attachment=1]DSC01115-1.JPG[/attachment]
 

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Hi Tallulah,

Yes, I've found this type of deformed egg before in my girls nest box. None of my hens showed any signs of illness though, and it only happens very rarely. I don't think it's detrimental to the bird concerned - just a blip in the egg production process.
It's well worth making sure your girls have a good balanced diet including layers pellets/mash, greens and of course grit, and not too many treats.
I hope your hens are laying normally again soon.

All the best.
 
Thank you for putting my mind at rest - it was a bit of a shock when I found it! Just to confirm that my ex-batts are on ex-batt crumbs at present (as recommended to built them up) and they have access to grit as well. I'm trying them out on different greens at present so hopefully they are having a good balanced diet, with a few treats (but not too many) I dont want them getting fat and unhealthy. I'm getting up to 4 eggs daily from 5 of them so no complaints there. Its just nice to know that this sort of thing can happen from time to time. Providing they are ok, if it happens again I wont panic :)
 
There was a picture of something like this in the practical poultry mag this month, they didn't know what it was either!
 
I would say it's a membrane from an egg - from time to time chooks can lay a soft egg without a shell (and sometimes without a yolk) and my guess is it was broken and this is it stuck tagether and dried up.
 
Hi Tallulah,

I'm back.
I've recently read in Practical Poultry magazine the item you are describing is called a 'Lash' and is a normal cleaning out process of the reproductve system of the hen.
I'm really glad this thing has a name - I've often wondered myself if it was a recognised occurance!
Hope this is helpful :)
 
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