Pipped egg gone from nest!! Broody ate it??

[turkey girl 0964]

This is our first time with any broodys or fertilized eggs so we didn't make them a good spot to raise and hatch chicks and poults. That is why I am on this forum, to learn all I can so next time this happens we will be prepared.

 

[turkey girl 0964]

Just set out the game cam and hopefully we see something... tomorrow setting it out in the turkey coop, next night in the barn.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Mighta been a magpie. Those and nice are what get most of our eggs before they're running around. Even then, I had a pair of (idiot) hens last year that were raising a clutch together and literally would be four feet away as a magpie came to grab a chick. They lost no joke about 14 that way before I finally took the last 2 away from them to just raise myself

 

[SpicyDill]

We started moving broodies into our quarantine coop so they could hatch in peace, and waited about a week before allowing them to mingle with the rest of the flock. Worked great.

 

[aart]

I was just wondering if anybody had a hen or a broody that killed/ate hatching chicks.

I haven't had it happen, but have read more than few stories here about it happening.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I had a broody hen that killed two of her chicks but did not eat them. She raised her other six. There is a long story behind that. I've had a very few chicks die in the nest at hatch, I've never had another chicken eat one. I have not had a chicken eat the shells after the hen brought her chicks off the nest. I'm sure this kind of stuff can happen but I've never experienced it.

At about noonish I checked under our other broody bantam and there was a pipped egg!! After I feed all the animals the egg was gone, no blood, no shell just gone!!

To me it is extremely unlikely that any chicken ate that without leaving a trace. Chickens can swallow a mouse so it's possible a chicken could eat a baby chick but before they eat that mouse they peck it until bones are broken and it is really limber. No way could they swallow a chick still in the shell. They'd have to soften it up first, just like the mouse.

If another chicken ate it they'd possibly carry it out to the run or somewhere. If they did that I'd expect to find bits of egg shell out there.

I've had a snake eat eggs out from under a broody hen during daylight. To me this is a strong possibility. The broody hen just sat there. The rest of the flock wasn't sounding an alarm, they often do if they see a large snake but they were outside so they didn't see it. It's possible something else got the egg without the flock or broody sounding an alarm but I really think snake. Maybe because that is what happened to me.

Have you cleaned out that nest and searched in the area to be very sure it is not there. I've had golf balls (fake eggs) disappear before and later find them in the bedding.

I don't have any more ideas as to what might have happened. From your threads I don't see that you are doing anything wrong to deserve this.

 

[turkey girl 0964]

I had a broody hen that killed two of her chicks but did not eat them. She raised her other six. There is a long story behind that. I've had a very few chicks die in the nest at hatch, I've never had another chicken eat one. I have not had a chicken eat the shells after the hen brought her chicks off the nest. I'm sure this kind of stuff can happen but I've never experienced it.


To me it is extremely unlikely that any chicken ate that without leaving a trace. Chickens can swallow a mouse so it's possible a chicken could eat a baby chick but before they eat that mouse they peck it until bones are broken and it is really limber. No way could they swallow a chick still in the shell. They'd have to soften it up first, just like the mouse.

If another chicken ate it they'd possibly carry it out to the run or somewhere. If they did that I'd expect to find bits of egg shell out there.

I've had a snake eat eggs out from under a broody hen during daylight. To me this is a strong possibility. The broody hen just sat there. The rest of the flock wasn't sounding an alarm, they often do if they see a large snake but they were outside so they didn't see it. It's possible something else got the egg without the flock or broody sounding an alarm but I really think snake. Maybe because that is what happened to me.

Have you cleaned out that nest and searched in the area to be very sure it is not there. I've had golf balls (fake eggs) disappear before and later find them in the bedding.

I don't have any more ideas as to what might have happened. From your threads I don't see that you are doing anything wrong to deserve this.

We searched the stuffing in the nest and no shell or egg. We searched the other broodys cage to see if it might ahve fallen in there but nothing. We looked in the run and outside even though we didn't let them free range yesterday. We did have a baby gopher snake a month or two ago but we let it go. I am clueless and very disappointed that this happened again.

 

[turkey girl 0964]

Nothing on the game camera either. We didn't get anything in the traps either.

 

[Nksg75]

My husband and I are going to set one up tonight. I was just wondering if anybody had a hen or a broody that killed/ate hatching chicks.

I did!

LAST summer I had a crazy broody hen who kept having “eggs dissapear”. I thought I had a rat problem, but since the entire coop is over done with hardware cloth, I thought well that’s strange.
So I would check on her all the time, and on the last egg, I caught the crazy broody hen killing a newly hatched chick!
Needless to say she no longer will ever be allowed near chicks.
Now she is know as “The crazy baby killer”