Hatched Egg, No Chick

[BPM83]

Egg looked unzipped correctly in the 2nd eggs but I could still see red blood vessels inside the membrane.

Circumstantial evidence: first chick was out of the nest and had been pecked, possibly looked like it had been removed from shell too soon. Second chick missing. What did the second shell look like, if it was still there? Did it have a clean zip line, and had all of the blood been absorbed from the membrane? Or did the shell look like it had been fractured and picked from outside, possibly after pip or initiating zip.

Chickens have been bred to the point that their broody nature is often messed up. I had one hen who was in love with the idea of setting, but when those chicks started pipping, she freaked out and abandoned the nest. I've also had hens who were chick aggressive.

 

[BPM83]

I'm with LG on this. You need to do some further investigating, starting with her points. Temporarily remove the broody and chicks from the nest in question and dig down through the nesting material. You very well may find a squashed, dead chick at the bottom of the nest.

I've had this happen where my broody knew a chick coming out of the egg wasn't viable or died and she scratched the egg and dead chick deep into the nest where I later discovered it.

When a live chick gets evicted from the nest, very often the chick has severe abnormalities and wouldn't survive even with the best of care. We know this from the many accounts here on BYC of abandoned chicks.

As for a broody consuming a dead chick, it's known that broodies may do this to preserve the integrity of the nest, reducing the chance predators will be drawn to her nest and surviving chicks.

This week my broody had new chicks hatch. At the beginning of her incubation, an egg broke. She ate it. This is normal for the reasons I just mentioned. What complicated this particular act was the egg was infected with bacteria for some reason, (the remains had a putrid odor) and my broody became sick from it, causing awful diarrhea. Yeah, very inconvenient. A round of penicillin cured her by the time the eggs finally hatched. It was an experience, let me tell you.

I dug through all the bedding, searched every corner and all around the outside of the coop. It was completely and totally gone. I did just find some eggs eaten today that had been laid in another area. A few of my cinnamon queens like to lay in a dog house. I also trapped a possum in my garage this morning. I figure the possum ate the eggs. Would a possum sneak into a coop during the day and not hurt the hens, just take the chick? It was not a very big one

 

[azygous]

Oh yes. Possums are under-rated as predators. They sneak around and you don't even know they're around unless you confront one and you get hissed at.

 

[Ursuline Chick]

the possums will go into a havaheart trap, it you decided to release, please take a loooong ride, cause it will come right back. We have problems since we had to re home our roo 2 years ago, (the city made us, we weren't supposed to have him). We have trapped possums regularly for 2 years and continue to. I think it will continue as long as we keep hens. You don't need live bait, but be careful as I have had one less than a foot from my head in a lemon tree in my yard. And it didn't hiss. I think my bull light on him stunned him and he didn't know what to do. I have caught them walking into my coop at dusk. In my coop/roosting area at 2 or 3 am with a full sized, grown hen in a large possum's mouth, sometimes we just have to protect our pets in our own yards. The hen was stunned for a few hours, no detectable damage to her, she was back to normal when the sun came up that day, we were lucky. A fairly large possum can squeeze through a 2" x 2" space easily, they are like rats, if they can get their heads in a space they can get into that space , so be careful.

 

[Ursuline Chick]

So Sorry you have a possum problem, just have additional work to do each evening to protect your chickens. What you do to rid yourself of the problem is your choice. But I can tell you they will come right back if you release with in a few miles from home. And they will take up residence in your home or shed. They are distructive and very prolific

 

[lazy gardener]

Any creature that does damage to me or mine does not have the option of being relocated, unless you count a deep hole. Most critters make good fertilizer.

 

[DesertBird]

Any creature that does damage to me or mine does not have the option of being relocated, unless you count a deep hole. Most critters make good fertilizer.

I get that it's your choice, and I totally respect that, but I would just like to say that humans did take up a ton of wildlife's territory. I'm an advocate for relocation when possible, but it's totally your choice, and I'd probably be very upset if something attacked my chickens, too.


And to the OP - so sorry for your chick loss! Good luck with your possum problem; if you call a wildlife rehabber or animal control, I think they should be willing to come relocate for free? I'm not sure, you'd have to look into it depending on your area and which place you choose.