Broody hen attacked in the night

[loopy12]

When I went to have my daily 'you can do it' pep talk with my broody I found she had blood all over her comb and neck feathers.
On closer inspection there is a lot of blood all over the rooting bars outside the nest box and across the hen house too.

She is on day 20, chicks are due tomorrow. I peeped under her and could only see 3 maybe 4 eggs (there were 11) and yolk all over her feet.
I was mystified.

Pondered it for a while.
Definitely all was calm when I shut them in last night.
We do have a racoon problem - we have trapped 5 in 2 months, and a bag of feed was ripped open and half eaten last night so I'm thinking raccoons.
But how?
We have an Eglu cube hen house for the main hen house and there is an air vent in the bottom of the nest box. I think a racoon got its hand up and grab at the eggs and at Buffy, and she fought back...?

BUT on further inspection I found an open egg in teh drop trays, covered in blood, 2 feet from the nest box, dead almost formed chick inside

I don;t understand how the egg would get from the nest box to the main area and several feet away

Could it be something else? A snake or something?
Or if a racoon attacked the nest, could she have then lifted the egg out of the nest box (over a divider of 4-5 inches) and chucked it into the main area and then it got kicked about by the other hens? Where could the other eggs have gone? there is no sign of any of the other 6 or so eggs

I've treid twice in the last few weeks to move Buffy and she won't - she just won;t sit on the nest elsewhere.
Both my incubators are full so I can;t hatch the remaining eggs.
I want to move her, but and worried about her then not staying on the eggs, and there is already 1 pip and don't want to shrink wrap them, but I am sure the racoon, or whatever it is, will be back tonight

I don't know what to do!!!!!!!!!!

I will be devastated for her if she gets no chicks after 3 weeks of sitting there

Should I try moving her again? I don't even know if the other eggs are ok or not.

 

[Southernbelle]

Can you leave her there and move everyone else? She's so close! Once the chicks hatch she won't care about staying on that nest anymore and you can move her anywhere you want.

I had a broody once who was brooding in the corner of the coop. Every day or so I'd lose an egg out of her clutch. I was mystified. Finally, I realized that when she was getting up to eat/drink/poop 2 of the other hens were going to her nest and pecking on her eggs until they cracked one open and ate it. They weren't usually egg eaters, but I guess the blood/developing chick were especially tasty.

I put her in a dog crate in that corner and she hatched her remaining 2 eggs in peace.

I also had a broody who took over the favorite nest once and the bigger hens used to pull her out by the comb so they could lay thier eggs. Her comb got rough and bloody from that, so I moved her nest and all to my old brooder so she could hatch in peace.

I don't know about predators. The Eglu is supposed to be very safe.

 

[darbella]

Could you have a rodent problem? They can move the eggs around and also chew up a bird pretty badly. Maybe if you are thinking a racoon is reaching in, you could get a dishpan at the dollar store and transfer her into that in the same place she is now. at least there will be something between her and the space they are reaching in.

 

[Gypsy07]

Can you lift up the whole Eglu and move it somewhere safe? Inside a garage maybe?
That way she's still inside it and hasn't had to be moved off the nest...

 

[loopy12]

Quote:
Yes, I've been thinking this is what I'll do.

I slid a plastic flexi chopping board under her but I'm not confident the long arm of the racoon might still reach in.

I don't think its other hens or rodents. She is top hen and she lets the others come in and lay - she budges up and waits when the others pop in to lay then tucks the new egg under a wing where I collect it from (seems to know those are not worth her body heat). And if it was rodents I think it would've happened before.

We have mice, but Buffy could take on a mouse no problem. Was definitely in the night - she was fine at 9pm last night.

I've concluded that it was almost certainly a racoon. And I think teh blood got everywhere because she dumped it out of the nest, lifting it up the side of her face to get it oer the divider and thats why she has blood all up one side of her neck.
I really want to know how many eggs she has left under there.

When DH let them all out this morning he said Buffy shot out. Are broodies supposed to leave the nest during 'lockdown'? How come the eggs don't shrink wrap if they've pipped? One of them had definitely pipped - I saw it under her breast feathers

Well, anyway, we will move the whole eglu into the shed tonight for a few nights, then move her when she's finished hatching into a corner of the shed where I know she'll be safer. I just hope she gets at least one chick out of this

All 11 were mocing when I candled 5 days ago.
Sigh.