Originally Posted by stefthepest:
“Yes chickens obviously corn fed and hopefully organic saying that mum said when chickens lay their first egg they bleed and feel pain so hope those chooks were ok.”
my chickens are not corn fed, and believe me their eggs are sunny and strong.
Hens may feel a little discomfort when they lay their first egg but its not considered
painful like when we give birth.....
When hens are laying eggs, the eggs come out very soft, and as they are being laid, the hen releases a tiny amount of slimey lubricant to help the egg through the vent then the egg shell gets hard when exposed to the air. Its not adviseable to actually eat a fresh egg i.e. boiled as its almost impossible to peel it.....believe me i have tried.
When a hen lays her first egg its classed as a PULLET egg and will be quite small, she might have a tiny bit of blood left on the shell BUT i have never had one with blood on them, but her vent soon stretches and it doesnt usually happen again, even older hens who have been laying for months can lay with a tiny bit of blood on egg shells. The chickens system is designed to lay eggs...that is what they do and its like a little factory internally.... and the opening is shared with the digestive system and bowel. When the egg is due to come out of the vent, a little flap of skin covers the digestive area so no fecal matter contaminates the egg....how neat is that...?
When they have laid their egg, some breeds get off the nest and go out will make a right old racket squawking and shouting so loud its worse then any cockerel..... and some people misinterpret this as pain.
The theory to that is she is protecting her egg by moving away from it and distracting predators from the nest itself and focusing their attention to her instead to keep her egg safe.
Ooops sorry forgot i was on FIAB for a minute, chicken keeping is my passion.