What's happening to the eggs?

[Chickenheadmate]

I put 6 under eggs under my broody hen.
I went to go see if the hen had any other eggs that weren't hers, she did, under her.
I noticed there was only 4 from the ones that I put under her, from the 6, and one was outside the nest; meaning one is missing.
The nest has a 4/5-ish inch lip.

Any theories?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Someone ate it. Either the broody hen or another bird. Broken eggs generally get eaten, and sometimes other hens will just eat the eggs.

 

[Anthony-Smith]

If the egg was eaten, there is a way to fix that. I wouldn't do it while you have a broody hen, but when she is finished being broody and the chicks are older. You can take a few eggs, and WIPE THEM CLEAN. Take a tack, and poke a hole without cracking the egg at the top of the egg, and the bottom. Then blow the egg whites and yolk out. Get a candle, and melt the wax over one of the holes (preferably with the missing chunk of egg shell inserted over the hole you made) so as to seal one side of the egg. Next, get some hot sauce mixed with mustard and a syringe. Inject the hot-sauce and mustard into the egg (both things they hate). Id do it till its almost full. Then, seal the other hole with wax and egg shell chunk that came off. Once sealed, gently wipe the egg down again. Put the egg back in the nest and remove water from the coop for a day. The chicken who has a taste for eggs will lose her taste for eggs real quick!

If you can find the chicken who did this (indicated by yolk on the beak), you can separate her from the rest of your birds and do this, that way you don't have to wait for your broody hen to be finished, as she will need water during this process.

This happened to me and it worked for about a year. She got into eggs again recently, but that was after I realized that she was hungry because squirrels and whatever else got to their feeder before I knew it was empty.

I also heard that making sure they have enough calcium can fix this issue as well.

Hope that helps!