I had way too many birds in my bantam pen and way too much on my plate, so an egg situation got a little crazy. My game bird and showgirl were sitting on more eggs than they could cover. My game bird is viciously protective of her nest, so I faced her wrath and removed all eggs to check their progress. I gave four very developed eggs to her, four maybe week along eggs to the showgirl, and the rest in my incubator. Two days later the gamebird had wrestled control of all eggs under her and the showgirl quit being broody. I also saw a cracked eggshell and then a partially eaten chick that was looking mostly developed. By this point I had moved all the extra birds out, but they could have been in when the egg cracked. There's three other females laying eggs in there and she was hoarding all the eggs again. Meanwhile, an egg in the incubator hatched, so I figured some of her eggs would soon follow. Five days later, no chicks, she has more eggs than she can sit on, and I get brave enough to face off with her again. Only one or two under her even look somewhat close to hatching. There should have been four at about the same stage as the one in the house. I don't see any egg shells or corpses. I marked off six eggs for her and gave the rest to the pigs since they didn't even look started or looked dead from being in the cold. What could be going on? Do I have a chick eater? One of the eggs I left under her is an odd color and close to hatching, so I'll know if it goes missing.
I didn't think to look under her when I moved her off the nest today.
I'm going to see what the game camera shows tomorrow and decide from there. Thanks for the advice everyone!
