Hen lays 'eggless' chick on Sri Lanka farm

In this particular case, the chicken came first. No kidding.

Born where there were six hens in a Sri Lankan mountain small farm, the chicken was delivered by its mamma who sadly died in childbirth. In what is for certain an anomaly, the egg actually hatched inside the hen 21 days beforehand. (major ouch!) The mom died of internal injuries.

However the chick is doing just fine. I could find no further information on what factors might have influenced this.

You can view a video of the report and see the chick here

Poor Hen! She must have been egg-bound, the chick still incubating and then 'hatched' out inside her.

Awwwwww... Gotta love them chickens.



peace

reply to post by aboutface


Not so totally off topic. I got a double yolk yesterday in my egg. I carried it through the house to show my husband while he was shaving! That was the first time for a double. I got a bloody egg a few times.

I know it is "just a chicken" but as a woman and a mother I feel sympathy for that poor hen and hope she got a direct line to animal heaven, poor thing. What a terrible way for any female to go. Ugh...I remember my own delivery complications. shudders.

reply to post by silo13

I don't know anything about raising hens, Do you know what the do when the hen doesn't normally drop the egg?
enjoyed your pic btw.

reply to post by SheeplFlavoredAgain

It's a creature after all, and like you I vividly remember birthing too. I hope she's in hen heaven too

reply to post by karen61057


A farmer near where I live is known for selling double-yolked eggs. He's been interviewed on tv a few times. But that's like having twins, isn't it? Not that common, but it tends to run in some families.

reply to post by karen61057


I don't have chickens, but we have Diamond Doves and our main pair has had 6 babies over the years. One of their babies, who is now two, has had serious egg-binding problems. Even without a mate, she still tries to lay eggs but has a problem with her reproductive system and can not get the egg out. She's had it so bad that she also had egg-yolk peritonitis, a really bad infection. Somehow, she survived three times already, which the avian specialist considered a miracle that she survived it just the first time!

What we do with her is give her liquid calcium by mouth. The specialist will also give her a calcium injection as well. The calcium helps push the egg out, or form the egg in case it is soft. Then, we give her Baytril, an antibiotic, to help with any infection from the egg just sitting inside her and making her sick. I also give her a warm bath to help loosen her muscles, hoping it will help her push out the egg, and put mineral oil on her vent/butt area to also help it slide out. That's really all you can do. Somehow, our dove never laid any of the eggs stuck in her, they actually somehow reabsorbed back into her body. The specialist was baffled.

Then, if the hen still is having egg-binding problems even with increased calcium, hormone shots might be the last resort. We've done that as well, to try and stop her from forming eggs but she still does it anyway somehow. After that, all that's left is a hysterectomy which is expensive and very hard surgery on a fragile bird, especially a small bird like a Diamond Dove, but I imagine it's very life-threatening even for a chicken!

Sorry if I rambled on, I love birds so very much. Love love love. Am intrigued about this story, but sad about the mother hen.. must have felt so insanely strange for her.

reply to post by Deadscreameyes

Thank you for answering! You saved me a lot of typing - basically the same is done for a chicken (liquid calcium) or physically trying to help the hen which I'll not go into depth about here. Yuck. Poor things.

Lovely to hear from someone who loves birds!

peace

surprised how many double yolks have gotten these past few months. the yolks are small though usually not like 2 big ones together. havent gotten bloody yolks in months, used to from the brown/organic ones alot though.

poor egg-bound hatch death, wonder if it backed up other eggs she would have laid or if the hen just stopped ovulating when she became eggbound?

reply to post by silo13


Another bird fan.. awesome Jealous that you have chickens, I assume you do? I've always wanted chickens. I know a lot of people think they have a reputation for being so mean, but I love them. Doves and chickens, I just have a powerful bond with. I really really love doves and pigeons, can't get enough of those beautiful little creatures with their tiny heads and big fat bodies

Our doves prove how amazing instinct can be. They have never been out in the wild. We have them right next to a window in our house so they can all sun themselves and get air when it's nice. A giant seagull will fly by and they do nothing. Pigeons fly by, nothing. Geese, nothing. A hawk flies by (Insanely high up in the sky, too, that we can barely see it) and they all start doing this alarming "EEP EEP EEP EEP" thing. It's amazing because they never have been outside, they've never seen a hawk or should "know" what it is... but they just know! And how they tell the difference between a hawk and a seagull, which they've also never really seen up close, when they're that high up.. it's amazing.