About two weeks ago I decided I wanted to do a broody hatch. I had two hens laying in an old nest protected in this old chicken coop that is no longer in use. I let them lay in there(their first home) until about 12 eggs piled up. The Easter egger went broody so I put some food and water by her and I locked the coop up(it has an attached run that is covered and secure). Well, yesterday one of my housemates opened up the old coop and saw her in there. He left the door open and never told me. This morning I woke up and my broody was walking around outside just kind of grazing. I went to the coop and every single egg was gone. There were no egg guts, no wetness, no shells, nothing to make it seem as though a critter had gotten in. Also... my hen was sitting on the eggs all night protecting them(unless she got scared off them, but it would have been pitch black).
We have raccoons, coyotes and sometimes possums. We also have mice, but no rats. We do not have any snakes and we can rule a human thief out -- the eggs had been incubating for a week or so(yuck!). It's pretty rare to catch a possum in our traps or on game cam, maybe once every couple months. This sounds kind of gross but could it be the hen that ate her own eggs?
I have no idea, if anyone has a guess I'd be glad to hear it.
We have raccoons, coyotes and sometimes possums. We also have mice, but no rats. We do not have any snakes and we can rule a human thief out -- the eggs had been incubating for a week or so(yuck!). It's pretty rare to catch a possum in our traps or on game cam, maybe once every couple months. This sounds kind of gross but could it be the hen that ate her own eggs?
I have no idea, if anyone has a guess I'd be glad to hear it.
