kirkcudbright | chickens, and the stench of death

Shortly after we got back from vacation, one of our hens started disappearing. Didn't turn up for bed check, usually (but not always) showed up sometime in the middle of the day to let us know she was okay, then disappeared again. Okay, she's got a nest somewhere and has gone broody. We have a rooster who's been courting her assiduously, so we'll wait until she either gives up, or comes back with chicks in tow.

Friday afternoon found her taking a tremendous dust-bath in the yard. Decided maybe we'd follow her, see where her nest was. But every so often there's this...smell. Like something's died. The stench of death, as it were. It's hard to tell, but it's stronger by the chicken coop. Could something have crawled underneath and died? Because it smells like death.

Hands and knees. Flashlight, rake. Started pulling out the leaves and... egg shells. And eggs. Six whole eggs, no seven, no wait, a couple from one of the other hens. "Whole" has to be put in quotes, because at least one is majorly cracked, and only the membrane is holding the inside in. One exploded while I was pulling it out, and another exploded while I was burying them.

"Exploded" is perhaps too dramatic a word. "Popped" or even "burst" is more accurate with regards the sound and the effect, but consider that eggs should never ever do this - rot and ferment and build up gasses to the point that the shell, which was intended to prevent stuff getting in, is now preventing stuff getting out (and not good stuff neither).

They say rotten eggs smell like sulfur. It's possible that the rooster was actually doing his job, and last week's heat killed the embryos, and that's why it smelled like death, or it's possible that exploding eggs just smell that way. I don't plan to do a controlled study, in any case.

Chicken status: 3 hens, 1 rooster, in the coop, no one camping out elsewhere.