These photos are from Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens, by Gail Damerow. This is an excellent chicken book for anyone interested in chickens. It was the most fascinating and informative book I've read in years and I recommend it highly.
The chicken only has one hole in its rear end, this is called the vent. Through this vent comes the feces and the egg. But there is a special system to prevent the egg from being contaminated by the feces. The egg is inside a canal that is flexible and the sides of the canal are pushed out to the outside as the egg is laid; thereby shutting off the intestinal opening and depositing the egg clean and shiny into the nest.
This is a nice illustration of how the system works; but the egg canal often encases the egg and reaches out beyond the opening. You can see this when watching a hen lay an egg; there is wet, pink inside-flesh that surrounds the egg as it emerges.
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