There is no end to the gross oddities that you're exposed to when you have chickens. Chicken keeping is not for the faint of heart. Or fainters in general. Partly because of the lash egg.
Now I'm not a farmer. I'm a regular gal in a regular house with nice shoes, an affinity for gold plated flatware and expensive haircuts. I also have chickens. So my shoes get chicken crap on them and I once left the grocery store realizing I had a piece of straw sticking out of my expensive haircut. That straw had chicken poop on it.
So even though the chicken poop part of me could handle what I found in the nesting box the other day, the nice shoes part of me was aghast and disgusted.
When you have chickens, most days things go without incident. It's just you and your gorgeous chickens as they romp in the straw, scratch in the dirt and dance in the sunshine (everything seen through a filtered lens in slow motion). No, seriously, they dance in the sunshine. For real. Then one day you go to the chicken coop and you find something new. Something unusual. Something horrifyingly gross.
Such was the case last Tuesday.
Last Tuesday I went to check the nesting boxes, (where the chickens lay their eggs) like I normally do.
And I found an egg like I normally do.
Only it wasn't an egg, it was a horrifying rubbery blob.
I knew right away I had a problem. One of my chickens clearly needed an exorcism. Barf.
Double barf.
The chicken owner part of me removed the offending rubber blob from the nesting box, but the gold flatware part of me refused to touch it.
This, dear readers, is a regular egg sitting beside a lash egg.
A lash egg isn't an egg at all, only it is.
I asked poultry vet Dr. Mike Petrik, The Chicken Vet, what the hell this is and what causes it.
This was our email exchange:
Dear Mike,
What the hell is this and do my chickens need an exorcism. I have some sage around here somewhere and I think I can find a priest.
Karen Bertelsen
Dear Karen,
This is the result of an egg partly forming, then getting "hung up" in the oviduct. If you squint, you can imagine that the bigger piece is the yolk and the funny shaped part is a collapsed membrane that is folded around some amorphous material. The membrane is the part where the shell would have formed and the amphorous stuff is the protein from the egg white, once the water is removed.
This often happens with sick chickens, since the first response to illness is to conserve resources. The egg stops whereever it is in the process. If you cut it open you can see the yolk is cooked. The result of a fever.
It is quite possible that this is from Cuddles and is a sign that she is fully recovered and ready to come back into production.
Mike Petrik
Okey doke. So let's cut it open!
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I'm losing count here but I think we're up to triple barf.
The inside of the disgusting lash egg.
And just as Mike predicted, some of it is cooked on the inside.
Now let's cut each half in half again.
Now you can really see the eggshell membrane in there.
So this was definitely an egg that was just about finished forming when something went awry.
The morning after this happened, Cuddles was back in the nesting box but she didn't lay anything. In fact she hasn't laid anything since. But she seems to be happy and healthy.
Other than that whole head spinning around incident yesterday.
Meh. I'm sure it was nothing.
Lynne
I feel compelled to note that you used a putty knife/paint scraper to dissect that thing rather than a piece of cutlery you would use for food. Good call.
Michelle Wagler
I totally agree!
Ev Wilcox
Just back from hugging the porcelain convenience. Well, mentally anyway. Poor Cuddles. She must have been miserable. Glad "the thing" is out of her. Yikes! You are a good poultry mama.
Dagmar
I found that to be very educational. I guess I'm not grossed out, because I am a vegetarian, though not a vegan so I do eat cheese, and mayo sandwiches. But I wonder- where exactly do all of you people think that your hamburgers, or steaks, or pork chops, or crab cakes, or bacon bits, or really anything that is just delicious comes from? Well the animals that are part of that process sometimes have a hiccup or some gross anomaly happen to them. You just know nothing about it. Don't kill the messenger.
Beckie
That was fascinating.
And not gross. At All.
what does that say about me??
Erica Filpi
I was thinking about getting chickens.. Then I saw this post, thank you for making that decision so much easier. I'm going to barf now.
Su
I usually love what you share with us.... this though I could have past on.... I zipped by the pics and I'm still grossed out.... yuck... but I'm glad that Cuddles seems to be on the mend.....
Tigersmom
Did no one else see a badly preserved (in bleach, apparently) severed penis sitting in hay when they saw this?
I usually pore over your pics, but you could have hidden gold and diamond encrusted pigs in these and I would not have lingered long enough to notice.
I hope you keep disposable gloves on hand at all times. I would have needed ten foot tongs. And I would have never been able to cut it open.
Go Cuddles!
BethH
Yes! That's what I saw, only the severed penis was preserved in vinegar! As a science experiment, I used to put a whole egg in a jar of vinegar and it would turn so rubbery that you could actually bounce it. The two images sort of merged in my mind. When that image cleared, I thought, "Wow, I bet that came out of Cuddles! " I'm glad you cut this open; it looks just like I thought it would on the inside, what with my experience in rubber eggs and all.
Carol
I saw a penis, too. And I was wondering about what it said about me. I'm glad to know I'm not alone!
Beth
Excellent post! (and your pics are fabulous, btw). I teach science to home-educating families (lifelong learning starts early) and love to find other seemingly-normal adults who are fascinated by nature/science/critters. Science rules!
Jody
I didn't find that gross at all. Interesting actually. Great explanation from Dr Petrik.
Kim C.
Oh no she's at it again! I kept telling myself, ''Don't do it, don't scroll through the pictures.'' Your way with words kept curiously stringing me along though, from one ewwwy image to the next. Okay it was fascinating, if only with one eye open! I'm sure I'll still be gagging when I bake cookies later...that paint scraper coming down...shudder.:-)
mimiindublin
I love how the vet refers to your Cuddles by name!
Carole Larose
Really-that was fascinating.
All I can say is Cuddles must be feeling so much better after passing that Blob! Phew!
Do a little dance , get down tonight'
Catherine
I have to agree about your haircut, in fact I took your pic to my hairdresser who laughed because my hair is fairly thin and wavy and obvs would not work. But a girl can dream eh?
I was drinking coffee when I steeled myself to look at the egg monster - it looks like an embryo doesn't it? I am now not going to have an egg for breakfast. Just to be on the safe side. Bit queasy.....
Karen
Huh. Which photo? Longish like it is now, or supershort and platinum? Just curious. :) ~ karen
Catherine
It was your Canadian Living pic - too recent a reader to have seen it super short - must look through the archives now!
Jane
Great post! This may not have been the most pleasant post however we got an education along with your hilarious humor. I loved learning something and having fun. You would have been a great teacher!
Thanks,
Jane
Karen
Well that's what I'm doing now Jane. Teaching. :) And I had a HUGE amount of fun teaching my how to turn your blog into a business course last week. ~ karen!
Karen
I have always known it was a bad idea to eat those things. This is what most eggs look like to me. Which is why I prefer mine well hidden by lovely crusts and cheeses and veggies.
Louise
Oh, I'm so glad you cut it open - I just had to see what was in it! And then you cut it again (you wonderful woman) and scraped out the stuff so we could see the membrane. Fascinating stuff! I've sometimes been accused of having a morbid interest in things, so it's nice to know there are other "weirdos" out there!
(I'm sure it's actually a mark of intelligence!)
Debbie
Louise, here is something for your morbid interest in things: http://muttermuseum.org/. I took my middle son there over the summer and it is an awesome place. You would have enjoyed the special exhibit of art made from blood (though unless you knew it was blood, you wouldn't know it was blood). We spent an entire day there and didn't see everything. If you are ever near Philly, let me know - you can stay with us and I'll take you! Oh, and it is definitely a mark of intelligence. :)
Louise
Thank you so much, Debbie; it looks great! I've bookmarked the site to look at when I have some free moments. As for morbid curiosity, that's how science and medicine make progress, right? I think a lot of "weird stuff" is an instinct in us to learn how to better our chances for survival. I'm sure that's why people have listened to scary stories though the years; to learn what to do when the monster kicks in the door and snatches you up!
Oh, and here's a link for you! http://all-that-is-interesting.com/doctor-removed-own-appendix
Maybe Karen should post something where we all send in our weirdest or scariest stories!
Debbie
Thanks for the link, Louise. That was amazing - and in 1960! Morbid curiosity and battlefield medicine are how we learn. (As long as the morbid curiosity is civilized.) I like the idea of weird/scary stories. While I love the ER shows, I'm awful with suspense.
Barbie
Looks a little like a cheese omelet to me.
Mary Edmondson
P.S. What you spend on your haircuts is obvious because your bob (my favorite classic hair style) is stunning. Mine is long now, as doesn't befit an old lady, but when it was your length and style for several years, it never looked as good because I don't have that sexy neck/nape line in back. Strut your stuff Karen. You're a stunner.
Karen
Well thanks Mary. I do love a good haircut. ~ karen!
Mary Edmondson
Hmmmmmm. I wonder what that egg would taste like. (Image of me throwing up!!!) Aren't animals fascinating? I have ants that inhabit nests made below a crack in my concrete patio and I watch them sometimes for several minutes as they go about their busy-ness. Lately I have been feeding them flies I steal from the spider webs in my yard and I put them and some dragon like slender insects right at the crack where armies immediately converge and salvage the treats in no time at all, forcing them down the crack and into their nest. The other day I put out a small tin with about 2 Tbsps of peanut butter. They love it and the PB is already about half consumed. As a reward for their industry tongiht, I gave them fruit flies that I caught by leaving a bit of wine out in a glass. So tonight they had wine with their dinner. It doesn't take much to amuse me. Do you suppose at age 75 I might be a tad senile?
On another subject, as soon as I open your posts, I click on the X of the banner ad at the bottom to get rid of it. Easy peasy and no more blinking and bothering.
CeCe
I get a vision of you with your loyal army of ants protecting you. Or perhaps taking revenge on your enemies - Ben, the loyal rat pal. Hey, it could happen!
Cynthia
Yikes! That is worse than a Thunder Egg, which is half poop and half egg. Enormous and gross. Bigger than anything that should come out of a chook's bum.
I keep imagining the feeling of resistance as you chopped through it with the paint scraper, right through to
the bottom.....and the reddish bloody looking bits. Not sure I can eat dinner tonight.
My last lot of silkies did thunder eggs all over my patio and it was so traumatic I sent them off to live with a nice little boy in the country. (that is not a euphemism for chopping their heads off, I am not lying.)
Karen
LOL. Here's hoping the roosters have the same fate. The boy in the country that is. Not thunder eggs. ~ karen
Stef
Hi, can you tell me more about this thunder egg? I cannot find any info at all online but am interested, I have had chickens for years and never heard of this.