What did it?!

[The Prairie]

So, we had a hen setting on 2 turkey eggs, 2 Americauna eggs and 2 banty eggs. All but 1 developed and they began hatching around the same time (we staggered the turkey eggs from the chicken eggs) day before yesterday. By yesterday morning 2 vanished, no sign what-so-ever. This left 2 turkey eggs actively hatching, and an Americauna egg actively hatching. Yesterday afternoon Americauna had almost fully hatched, had one small wound and was deceased. Turkey eggs were hatching last night still then this morning both vanished, no shells, no poults, not a darn thing. Some have suggested the hen ate them, I find this hard to believe. She sat on them faithfully for 28 days! Why would she do that now? We are in Western Washington State, so the only snakes we have are Garter snakes. We have limited predators too. Possum? Coon? Rats? I would imagine a Coon would harm the hen, who is completely fine. We're leaning towards Possum. We're just devastated! Any ideas?

 

[Hobbits Mommie]

Quote form Wikipedia:

Diet
Garter snakes, like all snakes, are carnivorous. Their diet consists of almost any creature that they are capable of overpowering: slugs, earthworms, insects, leeches, lizards, spiders, amphibians, birds, fish, toads and rodents. When living near the water, they will eat other aquatic animals. The ribbon snake in particular favors frogs (including tadpoles), readily eating them despite their strong chemical defenses. Food is swallowed whole. Garter snakes often adapt to eat whatever they can find. Although they dine mostly upon live animals, they will sometimes eat eggs.

 

[Hobbits Mommie]

I looked up what snakes live in your area, and there are actually quite a few. Can you post a picture of your coop?

 

[AMaggio]

That is an interesting situation. Is your hen confined or just sitting on them in her coop? If you know she didn't leave the eggs then I might agree that she likely ate them. As you said another predator would likely have injured the chicken or at least caused enough ruckus for there to be feathers everywhere. Hens can eat their own eggs if they need more calcium or protein in their diets, they can also get a taste of raw eggs if you feed them to the chickens and will eat their owns eggs as a result. I have yet to come across a problem like this personally but I would think you would know if a predator got in. Hopefully someone with some personal experience in this can give some good advice.

 

[DobieLover]

I'm really sorry this happened, but I too am leaning towards the hen as the culprit, simply because any other predator would have injured/killed her to get after the hatchlings. The fact that nothing happened until the eggs started to hatch tells me that the mother just didn't really know what was going on and attacked and ate the chicks. There are hens that are just chick killers.
How old is she and is this her first time being broody?

 

[centrarchid]

I think a snake. Most other critters leave shells in place. A baby opossum might slip under hen to steal eggs and consume them elsewhere but would have a hard time eating more than one chicken chick per night. The snake would eat entire eggs and likely leave hen undamaged.