Stolen Egg Mystery

[BerrytangleFarm]

There were three eggs under our broody due to hatch this Friday. Another hen has a tendency to lay her egg under broody, so I go searching for wrongly placed eggs daily. A few days ago, I remember feeling around a bit and only finding one of the fertile eggs but was distracted and didn't keep looking.

Finally, today, I see the other hen brooding along with her (great, two broodies now) and kicked them both out to search the area for wrongly placed eggs, hoping to upset the partnership a bit.

Lo and behold, there's only ONE fertile egg there.

After combing the coop floor to no avail, I find one egg (of COURSE it's the one I really wanted - BLRW) IN A DITCH IN THE RUN COVERED WITH MUD. I remember seeing a whitish "rock" there a day or so ago and wondered at it, but, again, didn't stop to check it out, so that egg has probably been there a couple or more days. In a fit of hope, I stuck it back under the original broody who had gone back to her nest.

WHAT?! I've heard of them stealing eggs, but dumping them in a ditch somewhere?! And where's the OTHER egg?!

UGH!

 

[mstricer]

I don't think that would happen but anything is possible. Another possibility is a rat could have taken it and ran and got scared and dropped it, just a thought.

 

[BerrytangleFarm]

Quote:
It's a raised coop with an enclosed attached run. Haven't seen any signs of rats anywhere around, and the cats have't found any either. The BLRW egg wasn't cracked at all.

This is a REAL mystery!

 

[BerrytangleFarm]

And the saga continues....

I put the BLRW egg (probably a lost cause) in one nest and put one broody on it while the other sat on the Gold Star. A few hours later, both eggs were in one box and both broodies were crowded on top of them.

Sigh.

 

[heatherkh]

Do your eggs look like this?

 

[hdowden]

did it get broken and eating?

 

[spowell]

I have a hen who hides her eggs. She lays one and covers it up with shavings. Much to my surprise, when I was checking for eggs one morning (before I knew she was covering them up) I found 5 eggs under the shavings!!!

Crazy hen!!!

 

[BerrytangleFarm]

I raked and combed the bedding in the coop to no avail. The only thing I can think of is that it went down the ramp with the BLRW egg and broke. I found NO egg shell, though, and, while the hens have broken and eaten their eggs before, there's always been a shell remaining. Crazy that they'd take it down the ramp anyway and there's no way it could have accidentally rolled down the ramp either with the layout of the coop.

So crazy.

Now I just hope we get the Gold Star to hatch. I have a breeder on-call with some babies due in a day or so in case we need them