Hen eating her eggs she was brooding

[blugrsnrs]

I went into the coop this am and the hen who has been very diligent about brooding had a broken eggs in front of her. none of the other eggs were disturbed. Do you think she did this or the other hens. I do have one hen who will occ. eat an egg. Not the one who is broody. Do you think she did it or another hen? Why would she do this?

 

[Ericasl]

I also had a hen do this. She was sitting for 2 weeks and I had food and water right by her. I caught her eating an egg. I freaked out took all the eggs away. Thank goodness I had another broody hen. Well then I got on here and was chatting with some of the great BYCers. And they said maybe she new the egg was wrotten, or it just broke when she was turing them and she was cleaning it up.

So I thought I would give Juice another shot with a few eggs. Well I kept watching her real close the whole day. She was just sittin away, well the next am I went out to check and she was EATING another egg and it had a chick in it. I was just sick. So I took her eggs away and locked her up. I was going to cull her because I was so mad, but I did re-home her to a nice old lady.

I have no idea what made my hen snap, maybe you could give her a chance put her where no other hens can get to her nest. Maybe in a dog crate I was also told put the end of a watermelon in there by her so she has something to peck at. Make sure she has food and water close, and just watch her and check her to see if she does it again. If she does I would say she has to go.