A friend has a flock of laying hens and he sells eggs. The hens are buff orps and some variety of reddish colored chickens. Every now and then he finds one dead, having bled from the rear end. Any clues or idea on what this could be?

Some of the hens lay HUGE eggs and I'm thinking this could be the cause but I don't really know.

-- john (natlivent@pcpros.net), March 10, 2002

Answers

Nasty little problem called blow-out. The hen literally prolapses when she lays the egg. That isn't usually what kills her, rather, it's the other hens chowing down on what she is trailing. They literally eviscerate her in a matter of minutes. Only way to save one is to find her before the others do and gently, after rinsing with saline solution, stuff everything back in and hope it stays.

-- melina b. (goatgalmjb1@hotmail.com), March 10, 2002.

I agree that it's probably prolapse. Here's an article on prolapse you might be interested in.

http://webusers.warwick.net/~u1015576/page6.html

-- Buk (noaddy@chickensrus.com), March 10, 2002.