Our Heart Breaks: A Feathered Friend's Egg-ceedingly Sad Farewell

Trigger warning for death and just general sadness.

At 7AM I released my girls from their coop and out into their run. We’ve had trouble with a raccoon lately so we’ve been very careful about locking them up at night.

Sometime between then and 9AM when I went back out, one of them laid an egg in the run that was too large for her system. The egg itself was pretty bloody and larger than any egg that we’ve gotten so far. As best I can tell from following the little trail of blood, she then retreated to the coop where she either experienced prolapse, or the other chickens attacked her and pulled her intestines out.

I’m sitting here, wondering if there is anything else I could’ve done, but aside from being right there the minute she started to bleed, I genuinely can’t think of anything I could‘ve done to help.