Chicken with odd eye issue.

I was just out feeding the chickens and noticed one of the young roosters had one eye closed. No goop, no lesions or discernible wounds were visible. I got a hold of him pretty quick ( blindsided him) and opened up his lid. His eye was clear and clean looking except there is NO IRIS AT ALL. Basically it looks like a slightly pink-brown clear marble. I can see right though the eye into what I assume is his ocular cavity. There's no pupil or iris that I can see. Otherwise he seems ok.
Any idea what it could be? Any idea if he'd be ok to eat? He's kinda next on my list and I think he may be trying to buy time.

I'm not an avian ophthalmologist, nor do I play one on TV, nor do I think that would even be a veterinary specialty, but I'm curious why you noticed it now. It sounds like a congenital thing. Has he always walked around with one eye closed? Animals in the wild will do things like that to hide a potential disability so they won't look vulnerable to a predator.

Since his eye is not going into the soup pot, I wouldn't think it would be a problem.


P.S. His name wouldn't be "Jack", would it?

He's about 16 weeks old now and I've not noticed it til today. That being said, he's one of 115 chickens so it's possible that I missed it, though not likely. I spend a lot of time watching them and try to handle as many as I can as often as I can. I'm culling the small and skittish birds first in order to end up going through winter with only the best of the bunch. The bird in question is likely to go in the next batch of fryers. Maybe I'll try to get a picture of it tomorrow. Aside from the look of it ( no pun intended) he's doing as well as his two-eyed counterparts. That's to say, he's almost freezer ready.
It's just a strange looking eye and I've had no luck with google image searches. Kinda wanna solve the mystery just to know... ya know?

I have never heard of this bit it's interesting. Maybe it's just a genetic anomaly. Is it a pure breed?

Did a larger Rooster try to peck his freaking eye out? because I totally had that happen to on of my geese that didn't make it. I thought he had lost the eye but he hadn't. The eye I though he'd lost came back in and looked kinda like a possible interpenetration of what you described. He died none the less poor dear.
But it definitely looked like someone had jumped him. No visible damage or irritation you say? Destined for the soup pot?

Matu Collins wrote:I have never heard of this bit it's interesting. Maybe it's just a genetic anomaly. Is it a pure breed?

The father was a HUGE Easter Egger and the mother is a Rhode Island Red. I hatched about 50 eggs this spring with this rooster and a variety of hens. Most of the crosses are pretty looking but small. The best ones came from an Australorp hen. Really pretty chickens! Good size and decent manners. I also bought a bunch of pure breeds at hatch time so now I have a good flock of birds to work with. Most likely I'll be culling all the roosters except a Black Australorp and a Black Giant. Through winter I'll assess the egg layers and by spring I'll have my breeding flock ready to go. At least that's the plan.

The one with the funny eye (currently referred to as "One Eyed Willie") is mottled white and red with a yellow mane. So with the one funny eye, he basically looks like a dirty redneck with a mullet.

There seem to have been A LOT more chicken eye problems this year than the previous years. Either way, since there was no goop, sluggishness, or other signs of sickness, then he doesn't have anything serious like Infectious Coryza and is probably good to eat.