I have a broody buff who is/was, sitting on six eggs. We are at day 14. I went down into the coop this morning and all was well & she was content. This afternoon I went down to collect the days eggs, checked ms broody & found.....4 eggs and 1 newly laid egg under her. I searched high & low for the 2 missing fertile ones, but they were nowhere to be found. Anyone have any idea what the heck this is all about? feldon
could be a snake if you could not find it i had trouble with snakes a couple weeks ago taking my eggs
No, no snakes here where I live. I'm in the Pacific NW up next to the Canadian border. Our coop is also critter proof. It's a mystery to me ! feldon
I had one missing once like that--also fertile. I suspected either: 1. my other hens. They will OCCASIONALLY peck at the eggs. 2. Rats..we had two rats for a short time. Since most of teh shell was missing, that is what I was thinking it was. Either way, I moved her intpo a large dog crate until they hatched because I was afraid it would happen again.
I had a raccoon that learned to reach through the pen into the nest box and pull the bantam eggs out through the wire. Standard eggs probably baffled him for 10 minutes before he figured out he could bust them in the nestbox and lick his little fingers. He did this every night until I finally broke the hen up. I felt like it wasn't right to let her set on new eggs every few days...she was broody for over two months...
This happened to me too! I lost 6 eggs in a week. Personally, I suspect my broodies accidentally broke them (there were 3 broodies in 1 nest), then ate the remains. Still, you'd think there would be some trace of sticky egg goop or bits of shell around... but no. I live in the pacific NW (Bellingham area) also -- nothing bigger than the common garter snake lives in my area. -Anne
Hi Anne. We're neighbors, I'm in Everson. Maybe she did eat them. If she did, she certainly didn't leave any remains lying around. Then again we are in the Pac NW. Maybe Sasquatch fancied a couple of over easys for his breakfast
