One Freaky Egg

We have two sweet little purebred Ameracauna pullets that I got from a breeder in North Georgia. These girls are defective as show chickens -- they are missing the "muff gene," the gene that gives the breed the distinctive beard -- so last August, the breeder gave them to me for free. They are perfect Wheat Ameraucaunas, the sub-category by the color of their tail feathers. Little Blue and Little Black are still with us, but Little Red didn't get into the house one night, and the next afternoon all I found was a leg and a wing. Hiding under the shed wasn't such a good idea after all.

I'm wondering if being bred for show and not for a "productive" life is now coming out. A few times since the turn of the sun, there have been goopy glops in the henhouse, and yesterday I found a most curious thing, like an enlongated malted M&M. We broke it open, and for sure, it was an egg, with a yolk smaller than a pea.

Today, Little Blue sat in the laying box a long while, and when I went back later I found this curiosity:



If you look closely, you can see the yolk. It's, like, an egg with no shell. Rubbery and squishy -- I'm not sure whether it actually has no shell, or an under-hardened shell. But it's a first for us. Weird. And, oh yeah, I still plan to eat it.