Missing eggs?? Options

[Bcoz18]

I have a turkey sitting on 15 eggs roughly 5 days ago. We went out of town and came back last night and lifted her up and say only 4 or 5 eggs under her. I did see a (1) broken shell outside of her box and the other eggs are no where to be found. They all were suppose to hatch on Saturday. We live in a town, we don't have snakes or anything like that. We do have raccoons and Hawks but never had a problem with them and we have netting over the whole area so 99% it's not a Hawks. Nothing else is strange other than eggs missing

Should I get what's left and put them in the incubator? Should I let her keep them?

I really couldn't get a good view so I hope I can find her out of the nesting area to really see how many eggs are left.

 

[Mvan42]

Hmmm, they will often kick bad eggs out of the nest.

You said your hawk proof which probably isn't the issue. If it was anything it could have been a raccoon, skunk, opossum, mink, fox, weasel... they all can and will take eggs. Snakeswill also. And more than likely there are snakes around you just haven't seen them. It's hard to say for sure. But any of those animals can squeeze through small holes and spaces if hungry enough.

Pictures of the area where the nest in may help with ideas on how to make it safer.

 

[Bcoz18]

Hmmm, they will often kick bad eggs out of the nest.

You said your hawk proof which probably isn't the issue. If it was anything it could have been a raccoon, skunk, opossum, mink, fox, weasel... they all can and will take eggs. Snakeswill also. And more than likely there are snakes around you just haven't seen them. It's hard to say for sure. But any of those animals can squeeze through small holes and spaces if hungry enough.

Pictures of the area where the nest in may help with ideas on how to make it safer.

It's a little hut.. there's also fencing around the whole thing. Never had raccoons in there... and I don't think we have them other animals here. I live in missouri

Should I pick up the eggs and place them in the incubator?

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

My turkeys would smash eggs sometimes on accident, so that's an option too.

 

[Mvan42]

Can u get a pic of the whole thing.
More than likely you do have some if not all of those critters running around. Not saying for sure thays what happened but it's a possibility. Also like the above all foul can and will break an egg or kick them out of a nest.

If you can put a camera in the area that may tell you If it was a critter, it will be back if it found a food source.

 

[RosemaryDuck]

I would keep an eye out for rats. They can be bold and will take eggs directly out from under hens. They will also take newly hatched chicks as well. Those slats in the wood are the perfect size for them to get in, too.

 

[Bcoz18]

She finally got up and I could see in there.. there's only 3 eggs in there!

 

[Mvan42]

My guess is that there is something taking them. One of the ones I named before or even a rat as states above. Do you have an old cell phone or something you could (if close enough have connected to the internet) download an live camera app like faleemi and point it at the nest. Then you can watch it and see what is going on. Or just a regular trail camera..

 

[Bcoz18]

I think she's been eating them. I watched the whole day and saw nothing no animals near. And moved her to take the eggs and there was 1 under her within maybe 3 hour time difference

 

[Bcoz18]

And the hut she's in smells so bad like death so I think she's breaking them open and eating them. I took the 1 egg that was under her and placed in incubator