I know mama knows best, but..

[havi]

I have a broody hen that is sitting on 12 eggs. I went out tonight to candle the eggs and see what was going on and 2 of them are missing. I looked everywhere, but nothing. No yolk not even a trace of egg shells. Would she eat the whole thing? I just find that a little hard to believe, but who knows. Is this normal? Also one of the eggs had a 'poke' in it. Like where she or one of the other hens must have pecked it. Nothing is seeping out or anything, so I just left it under hen. Here are some pictures of the one egg. Sorry for the crappy photos, but it was dark I needed 3 hands and its my camera phone.

 

[waibel zoo]

I have read you should drip some candle wax on that spot, or too much moisture will get out and bacteria in.

 

[apowers2777]

We just had a brooding hen and we separated her and the eggs she was sitting on so the other hens wouldn't get to them. next time I suggest doing this as soon as she starts brooding. Than the other hens can't hurt them either. Good Luck. Our's just started hatching too. We had 9 but one's in the house with us now.

 

[havi]

Well I went out there today and two more are gone. The one that was cracked was one of them. Where could they go? Ive had her with the other hens before when she was broody and nothing happened so I didnt think anything about it. Im about to go out there and put her off to her own.

But still..where are the eggs going? I mean there is NO trace of them anywhere. No egg shells nothing.

 

[IggiMom]

Could something have stolen them? I mean, if she ate them, surely you would at least see bits of shell, wouldn't you think?

A kitty or a skunk or a rat or something maybe?

Catherine

 

[milleryardchx]

do you have snakes in your area? they eat eggs whole. so there would be not trace of where they went

 

[havi]

Well I tried moving her to a small coop/run and she was having no part of it. She knocked the nest over and spilled all the eggs and was causing a HUGE fuss. I didnt want to mess up the eggs so I put her back where she was at. She was fine after I moved her back, started sitting on the eggs again. I dont know what to do. Nope nothing can get in the coop. I check it everyday just to make sure there are no holes or anything else. Thats what I thought. If she or one of the others were eatting them, then I would ate least find something.

 

[dancingbear]

She may have rejected some eggs, and pushed them out of the nest. From there, other hens may have eaten them. I know a broody can eat an egg, but they usually don't. The one with the cracked spot was probably stepped on. If a chicken had pecked it hard enough to break it, I doubt they would have stopped at merely cracking it.

Did you take all the bedding out of the nest? If not, there may be egg goo and shell fragments from smashed eggs, and you just haven't seen it. Eggs get broken in the nest very easily, either when mom gets back on the nest after her daily break, or struggling to push other hens off her nest. If you haven't checked that, you might want to, soon, so if there is egg goo, you can clean it out before it starts to stink.

 

[Chicky~Buddy]

there is a bunch of older posts with folks ideas for relocating mother/broody hen~

thus far I have best luck transporting a broody hen to her own living quarters late at night after she is well asleep *do it quietly and quickly* and to move her with original nest box if possiable if its a portable one ~ most times this has worked for us but not always.

we have had problems leaving hens in main flock to incubate eggs as they all squabble over the nest and broken eggs is problem plus other unwanted eggs being laid in the broody hens nest. once chicks hatch the other hens can be really cruel and cause great harm to mother and chicks. for this reason we always try to separate mama hens.

I think there is snakes and rats that steal/eat eggs?
we also have a few hens that do reject bad eggs and roll them out of the nest~
thats odd though to not see yolk or bits of shell or something?

hope you get lots of cute little ones.

 

[dancingbear]

Snakes can get in some very tiny holes. I wouldn't rule that out. But it would be unusual for one snake to eat that many eggs, that quickly. Not rats, though. They could make off with several, pretty quick.