Brooding problem

[TaraLeeHauki]

I have a question....my hens have laid and three are brooding. Last year all of the eggs stayed and were hatched. This year however, I have noticed that out of forty eggs, only twenty or so are still there....with no shells to speak of, and I think a chick hatched, but it is nowhere to be seen. What's happening?

 

[Judy]

I have watched one of my own broodies eat an egg she had been incubarting. The chick had died in the shell. You could also have a predator eating eggs. This time of year we tend to get rat (chicken) snakes in the coop; we relocated a large one just a week or so ago, who had been eating egs. Just a couple of possibilities.

 

[TaraLeeHauki]

I have watched one of my own broodies eat an egg she had been incubarting.  The chick had died in the shell.  You could also have a predator eating eggs.  This time of year we tend to get rat (chicken) snakes in the coop; we relocated a large one just a week or so ago, who had been eating egs.  Just a couple of possibilities.

 

[TaraLeeHauki]

Thank you. This is something I can start with. There has been two successful broods, but then I feed the chicks corn and killed them. Ugh. I know now....I had one chick hatch from a pile of eggs and feed her right. She's about three months old now, and there's another hen brooding. Can you tell me what is a good amount to allow her to sit on at one time?