I had 20 eggs under my one hen, i thought... and then I counted today and there was only 19
So I reaaaaallly hope it just fell on the floor somewhere and rolled away to never be found because otherwise I brought it in the house with my eating eggs
u know Nike, sometimes eggs can get cracked each time the hen or others gets onto the nest and as the hen continues to sit on them that egg will be broken.
Well, this is a reminder for everyone, a misconception on figuring out that missing eggs are eaten by the hen itself, well this could get the hen innocently labeled as an egg-eater. A chicken, i don't know with the other birds, especially the hen, has an innate behavior off "grooming" her eggs a way of ensuring them to be hatched. Now, going back to your concern Nike, IF u got missing egg/s, while the hen is brooding them, investigate first. U might get wrong and surprised, end up feeling guilty. now, that genuine, motherly behavior of a hen is that, when her egg/s is/are broken under her brooding care, as soon as she finds out that a wet substance or material exists in her nest, she tends to search for it. If it's a wet hay, cloth or something else, she will scratch it off her eggs. but if that wet thing is an egg material, she is then gonna suck off that leak from the egg, and sometimes eat the tiny pieces of shells, well egg shells are edible though. When that hen feels like everything's fine, she's gonna go back brooding without even starting to "masaccre" her own eggs. Like the female ducks, if they found out that her egg is broken, usually in the middle of her brooding time, the duck is gonna insert her upper beak into the egg through the crack and end up quacking-quaking-quaking-quaking-quacking loudly, even when the egg is still in her beaks. then she goes far from her nest and put that smelly-broken egg on the ground.
I could say this because I experienced this a whole lot time with my pets.
Hope it sooths.
