I’m at day 14 and they ate two of my eggs???

[J99]

At day 14 , I thought they were at least embryos ??
I have seven already candled and marked
And boom today I have five
I looked all under her the only thing I found was a piece of a shell

so they ate the whole baby?
why?

 

[Ridgerunner]

That piece of shell is confusing. What did it look like? Was it broken in half or smashed to pieces? How big was it? Any wet spots? Animals don't care if there is an embryo in there or just an egg, it's all nutrition.

I've had that happen before. a snake ate eggs out from under a broody but it did not leave any shell. That one was about 5 feet long, a black rat snake. He ate four eggs, went off a couple of days to digest them, then came back for more. A fairly small snake would only eat two at a time. But with a piece of shell, probably not a snake.

Sometimes critters prefer eggs to the chicken. Skunk or possums will kill and eat chickens but often they really like the eggs. These critters typically open them on the spot, but they leave shells. Sometimes the chickens will clean up the shells, kind of sounds like that could have happened. A raccoon might eat them on the spot but often they carry them away a short distance to a safer place to eat them. Or they might take them back to the den for their cubs. There are other suspects too, many things like eggs. A rat comes to mind.

It is unlikely any of your chickens purposely opened those two eggs to eat them. It can happen but not really that often. But about any chicken will eat an egg that is already opened. They won't care if it has an embryo in it or not. Perhaps those two eggs got accidentally broken, I've had that happen with really thin-shelled eggs.

I assume you've carefully checked that they did not get buried in your nesting material or down the side of the nest. Also, that they were not scratched out when she was turning the eggs or rearranging the nesting material? Sometimes eggs get moved out of the nest.

Most canines like a fox or coyote would prefer the hen if she were on the nest. They'd probably eat all the eggs, not just two unless they were scared away. But a dog might eat an egg and not bother the hen. Does a dog have access?

Obviously I don't have a clue what your coop or nest looks like or how predator proof it really is. As I said, that piece of shell confuses me, with many of these it doesn't make sense. It is possible it was your chickens but they would be pretty far down my list of suspects. Good luck on figuring it out.

 

[J99]

I have never had a predator in my coop ever! Not to say it’s impossible, but never a sign of anything the hen box has a lip to it , it wasn’t knocked out and I found the shells by looking all under her . I guess they were accidentally broken , which sucks .