Sunday, June 06, 2010

Eggbound (by the way who made that stupid name anyway) Chicken in the house

One of the chickens is egg bound. this is when a chickens egg is too big to fit through the opening that eggs, stool and urine pass through. (and i am using scientific terms for all the faint stomached). Anyway, we're talking major diarrhea. in fact she just had a bout of very runny poo. anyway she's in the living room under a laundry basket over on of tucker's rugs and assorted rags. poor thing. we will post pictures of the chicken later. Hope we don't have anymore reason to shoot oil up chickens butts anymore. Yes, that is what you must do for an eggbound chicken. i take this opportunity to post how a chicken lays an egg.
bye for now,
spek

Laying Eggs From A Hen's Perspective

Chickens, as well as other birds, have a common opening for reproduction, and for the evacuation of stools and urine. This opening is called the "vent". They do not have a bladder because their urine is not a fluid. It is a white paste, called urates, that you can observe surrounding the droppings. The intestine, ureters and oviduct come together into a common chamber called the cloaca. This is a rather dirty place, whereas the egg is always clean and almost sterile when laid.
The hen turns part of the cloaca and the last segment of the oviduct inside out, "like a glove." The described red membrane is then everted inside of these organs. The egg emerges far outside, at the end of the bulge. So it cannot contact the walls of the cloaca and get contaminated by stools or urine. Moreover, the intestine and inner part of the cloaca are kept shut by the emerging egg, and their contents cannot leave when the hen strains to deliver the egg. Therefore, eggs are always clean as they are laid. However, sometimes a hen, stomping around the nest with dirty feet, will get the egg dirty anyway.





*KnollAcre would like to comment that if you barf at any time during this post it's your own dumb fault for reading it and that we are not responsible in any way shape or form.