28 replies to this topic

[Still Waters]

www.bbc.co.uk said:

A Sri Lanka hen has given birth to a chick without an egg, in a new twist on the age-old question of whether the chicken or the egg came first.

Instead of passing out of the hen's body and being incubated outside, the egg was incubated in the hen for 21 days and then hatched inside the hen.

The chick is fully formed and healthy, although the mother has died.

The government veterinary officer in the area said he had never seen anything like it before.

Read more...

[Armchair Educated]

i thought chicks eat the white from inside eggs, did the mother die from the birthing or from the chick pecking. poor hen

[Robbie333]

Wow, that is amazing. Glad the little guy made it.

[Still Waters]

Armchair Educated, on 19 April 2012 - 02:47 PM, said:

did the mother die from the birthing or from the chick pecking.

Both maybe, it just says -

A post-mortem conducted on the hen's body concluded that it died of internal wounds

[Robbie333]

Still Waters, on 19 April 2012 - 02:54 PM, said:

Both maybe, it just says -

A post-mortem conducted on the hen's body concluded that it died of internal wounds

          She may have died but she indeed gave life. This is a good thing.

[puridalan]

Ya, that's why we know now they have the egg on the outside..that's like a human female dying from carrying a baby via tubal pregnancy or something and dying from internal wounds that way..though on rare occasions some females do survive tubal pregnancies, but it is rare. Either they die or they have to get an abortion or they spon. abort. Beautiful baby chick thou sorry the hen had to suffer.

[Fluffybunny]

An eggless chick? Everybody make a note of which one came first; hopefully we can avoid any future debate.

[bulveye]

They need to carefully breed this chicken so that they can start a new type of chicken that gives birth to live young! Will it become a mammal then?

[Wandering]

bulveye, on 19 April 2012 - 08:16 PM, said:

They need to carefully breed this chicken so that they can start a new type of chicken that gives birth to live young! Will it become a mammal then?

Not very practical if the mother dies every time she lays an egg. =/

[H.H. Holmes]

I don't think it would count as a mammal, bulveye. Even if it could give live birth, it still doesn't have mammary glands to feed its young with, nor does it have hair. As for the three middle ear bones, I have no clue whether chickens possess them or not.

[Arawyn]

hmm, if theres mammals that reproduce by laying eggs, i don't think a bird that reproduces by giving birth to live young sounds so strange to me.

[OverSword]

No way to prove or disprove the validity of this story.  Seems like just another tall tale to me.

[FlyingAngel]

animals evolves, get over it

[OverSword]

You think this has something to do with chickens evolving?  LOL!  duh?

[Astral Hillbilly]

Wouldn't there have been signs something was wrong with the mother hen ? I don't see how she could have laid any eggs during that time because this egg was blocking any others from passing it. I mean, if you had a chicken that had not laid an egg in 21 days, wouldn't that be a red flag ?