It does sound like it could be prolapse--that's where a bit of her oviduct gets pushed out from her straining too hard to lay an egg. It's not uncommon, but it is gross and a bit shocking to find her insides suddenly on the outside. You did the right thing separating her since the other chickens might have pecked at it and made it worse. You can help her out by getting a tube of Preparation H and applying a bit to your finger, and using the lubed finger to GENTLY push the tissue back up inside her. You may have to do it a couple of times the first time, and may have to repeat it a couple of times throughout the day. The Prep H will soothe the tissue and shrink the swelling. She should be OK, but wait until it's returned to normal before returning her to the flock. Watch her to see how she lays her next egg and check to make sure it hasn't reoccurred. She should be OK, but keep an eye on her in the future. Velvet ~:>

Exact words- "The mutation of a latent virus that a species may have beaen imune to may have been made possible by the manner in which we (peeps in general) have found to mutate the species" You have suggested first there was a latant virus- Latant virus: A nonactive virus which is in a dormant state within a cell. Then you suggest that a hosta was hybridized that somehow awoke this latent virus. This is impossible. Viruses mutate, they do not sit and wait centuries for appropriate hosts to be hybridized / mutated to awaken them. You keep saying the impossible is possible. I have suggested that the tobacco rattle virus which is viable in Hostas and Tobacco plants may have mutated into HVX. As possible evidence of this I offer the fact that HVX can only exist in the live tissue of hostas and tobacco plants. I am not saying that HVX mutated fron TRV, but there is a definite significant connection and a serious person would see that the fact that these two plants, both have the ability to be infected with HVX could be either a huge coincidence or there may be some connection between TRV and HVX. You have given an explanation that disagrees with hundreds of years of virology and defend it by saying anything is possible. Les, not everything you imagine is possible and the scenario of dormant viruses being awakened by hybrid hostas is true fantasy. You, in previous posts have said that HVX could possibly lie dormant, because anything is possible. Tens of thousands of dollars have been spent and the world's best plant virologists say it doesn't, but your arguement is anything is possible. Well Les, pigs don't fly and neither does your theory.

Perhaps stress can accelerate egg passage so that a shell doesn't get deposited before the egg is expelled. I'm not a vet, but the timing, & all THREE laying shell-less eggs, right after a couple of stressful events... I'd keep an eye one them, but would be inclined to write it off to stress--this time. (for what it's worth, my pet duck had some sort of metablic disease, possibly even cancer. Her bones were terribly decalcified--had her x-rayed--& the vet was able to humanely euthanize her with an injection. don't want to worry you, just explain the radical & probably completely different problem she had. She was laying soft-shells regularly, which is why I took her in to a vet who treated birds) It's true that various grain fungi--like aspergillosus (sp?) can be deadly to birds--if consumed. That's why the seed in feeders needs to stay DRY & the feeders frequently cleaned. But the effects are pretty severe--staggers, respiration difficulty--& your hens sound fine. As you observed, home laid eggs from hens well-cared for that have access to greens--the shells are like rock! & the yolks are so much deeper colored & tasty.

Gosh, Allison! I would have thought your cost psf would have been double that. Your house has always been one of my favorites. :o) Aggie...we just moved in 3 weeks ago. Our original intention was to go with a GC, but we ended up doing it ourselves. We bought our property on 10-31-06. We went to tons of open houses and toured new homes. We got familiar with the builders of the homes that we felt were doing quality work and spoke to them about the costs to build a home like XXX for us. That gave us a pretty good idea of what the $$$ would be. Then we started looking for plans. I couldn't find anything that was exactly what we wanted, so I did my own on the computer. When we were happy with the design I took it to a residential designer who drew up the plans for me. I researched and picked out every single faucet, light fixture, door knob, drawer pull and any other thing that I could think of...right down to the lumber & housewrap. LOL I made lists of those things on Excel spreadsheets (catagorized for each room). Then I looked online for better prices. I had nearly all of the items purchased before we broke ground on 3-28-08. Pre-purchasing worked well for us and saved us a TON of $$$. We enjoyed researching everything so much that DH & I decided to GC the build ourselves. I can't begin to tell you how many subs we interviewed. We were here every day that the house was being built and I can honestly say that every single person who has worked on our house has treated it like their own. If you're planning to use a GC, I'd nail that down first. I've heard from others that some GCs like to use certain plumbing or lighting places and won't use owner provided materials because of warranty/liability issues. Our house doesn't have all the bells & whistles, but it is exactly what we wanted. BTW...the GCs that we spoke to estimated it would be $95-110 PSF to build a house like this, but we came in at just under $64 PSF. The house is 4240 HSF with 6380 SF under roof. Please pardon all the yard decor. LOL This was taken move-in day. :o)