Missing egg contents / clean egg shell

[Andie32]

So I’ve got two hens sitting and should be hatching in the next 4-5 days. They are isolated from the others and they’ve had the same amount of eggs the whole time. Well today, just like every other day, we opened the box to let them out for their afternoon stretch and snack before they sit for another day, and I found half an egg shell in the box. It was nicely jaggedly cracked all the way around but it was completely CLEAN inside! No contents, no slime or yolk whatsoever!! So I waited around to see if they both still had all their eggs underneath and they do!! I have no idea where this half CLEAN egg shell came from!! Any ideas?

 

[Crestcrazy2]

Are you sure one didn't hatch? , are they broody ? Sounds like a zip

 

[Andie32]

Are you sure one didn't hatch? , are they broody ? Sounds like a zip

I didn’t see a chic running around and they both had they same number of eggs under them today as when we started. What’s a zip??

 

[Andie32]

I didn’t see a chic running around and they both had they same number of eggs under them today as when we started. What’s a zip??

Now I get the zip. This is my first hatch and yes, they’re broody. They won’t get out the box but for maybe ten minutes every day or every other day. I’ve set them up with food and water in the box and they have plenty of room to get up and relieve themselves or stretch. They sit on these clutches 24/7. One has 7 eggs and the other has 15.

 

[Crestcrazy2]

when a chick is hatching it first internally pips through the membrane and then externally pips through the shell and then after it's there for a couple hours getting used to the air and breathing it will start pecking around the outer shell of the egg and that's called a zipping when it gets all around the egg it pushes itself out and then it's hatched

 

[Andie32]

when a chick is hatching it first internally pips through the membrane and then externally pips through the shell and then after it's there for a couple hours getting used to the air and breathing it will start pecking around the outer shell of the egg and that's called a zipping when it gets all around the egg it pushes itself out and then it's hatched

I should have taken a picture of it! That was my first thought- where’s the baby? I didn’t see the other half of the egg and when they both got up for a quick dirt bath and snack I counted and all the eggs were accounted for so I don’t know where it came from. It was so strange.

 

[Crestcrazy2]

Do you have any other hens that could have laid an egg when they
Got up ?, I've heard of some hens doing that

 

[Andie32]

Do you have any other hens that could have laid an egg when they
Got up ?, I've heard of some hens doing that

Not inside the box no. It’s just the two of them.

 

[Crestcrazy2]

Do you still have the shell?

 

[Andie32]

Do you still have the shell?

No I left it alone and walked away for a minute and turned around to some squawking and saw another hen running off with it.