Chicken and egg question.

Pointed side first….Think of those pointy baby heads you have seen. The “point” is made by sitting in the canal before the push.

It seems like the pointy end coming out first might be less painful to the hen, but wouldn’t the egg have a better chance of not being damaged (crushed, cracked) during laying if the round end came out first?

Eggs are tougher than you’d think, and the drop isn’t far.

I am sure some are breech…

This is no scientific artcle, but I think this fella explains it well in layman’s terms.

Now Chuck, this article says the WIDE end comes out first…Hmph!

Wish my grandparents were alive, I’d go to the farm and perform a few experiments and report back in a few days. ;) Life was occasionally easier prior to the Internet!

When we have babies, the biggest part comes out first…so why wouldn’t that be true for eggs?

My understanding from a relative on this egg subject is that this depends on the individual chicken uterus. I’ll email her and find out how most of her (free range backyard) chicken egg shapes are.

I’d guess that the typical “point” has something to do with those little cages laying chickens are kept in. I don’t buy that type and my eggs are more “ovular”.

If the wider side comes out first… ouch!

well, here’s a graphic picture of a hen laying an egg

“7. The moist egg pops out. Sometimes it will come out blunt end first, sometimes pointed end first. For a few seconds after the egg is laid, a small red cone still remains outside, but it is retracted almost immediately and the vent is closed again. The bird stands high above the egg and rests, beak open and panting after the heavy work.”

i think wide end coming out first makes sense, because the wide part well, i dont know, will kinda open it up and then just let the pointy side drop out the rest of the way

@casheroo I feel for the little hens. I can’t imagine giving birth (to a fertile or unfertilized egg) each day. Wheew!

@casheroo Chicken vaginas. Well, my morning is complete!

I adore your input, I just want you to know.

I’m guessing here but I would have assumed the large end would ‘normally’ come out first, just like with human or other babies. In cases where there is a breech egg, the pointy end (or ass end) would come out first.

The wide end first makes sense to me. I think the egg would survive the stress of being squeezed out of the hen better that way.
Thanks, all. Lurve for your posts.

From the book Encyclopaedia of Birds (Shukla, Tiagi):

“Oisen and Byerly (1932) in an extensive study, observed that the pointed end appeard first in from 66–82% of the eggs laid. These results have in general been confirmed by Wood-Gush and Gilbert (1969), although in one group of hens 46% of eggs were laid blunt end first. Bradfield (1951) by fluoroscopic examinations of the egg in the uterus of the bird, showed that during most of the 18–20 hours that the egg was in the uterus it remained in the same position with the pointed end directed caudally, but that just prior to laying the egg was rotated through 180 degrees and that most were laid with the blunt end caudid.”

@Harp Thanks for the info…I had read they often “turned” internally, also Looks like it’s a bit of both.

My understanding is that the trip down the oviduct determines the shape of the egg, and that eggs tend to proceed blunt end first.

@Harp Many years ago a midwife demonstrated how sometimes, the baby might be a breech: and then, a few days before birth, without assistance, turns over so that it is head first. I guess hens are the same.