What's Happening?

[HomesteaderWife]

Forgive me for my briefness as I am making this post from my phone. Our hen has been on the nest for around 25 days and had around a dozen eggs under her from my last count. On day 20 I found an egg at the front of the nest open, but no sign of a chick anywhere. Yesterday we found another egg the same way- broken at the front of her nesting place with no baby anywhere. All the eggs were fertile....

She is blocked off away from any other chickens, and has food and water accessible. I've lifted her up for a brief moment to make sure there were no babies tucked up under her wings, and it appeared there are now only 6 or so eggs on the nest (with no signs of other shells broken, after she had 12 under her like I mentioned...)

Could she be eating her own eggs/chicks? The other eggs were a bit older so they should be hatching out any time but I'm wondering what's going on and if this hen will even hatch any out. She is a first time broody hen if that helps any...

Any help or advice or theories here? We were so excited for chicks and don't want all the eggs to just "disappear" or be found broken open like this. This is something we haven't experienced before.

Thank you so much for any help!

 

[TheKindaFarmGal]

In the past with broody hens I have lifted the hen up and not seen chicks....only to find I lifted the chicks up with the hen

. Talk about careless on my part! So, make sure no chicks are hidden again. Once you are 100% positive they aren't just hiding behind her, look outside of the nests for dead bodies. That sounds awful, but it is possible.

It is possible she has eaten the chicks or eggs. Sometimes hens will eat eggs that have gone bad. By day 25 any chicks should have hatched, so it is unlikely the other six will hatch. Possible though.

There could've been a rotten egg that spoiled the whole bunch...that happens sometimes too, so disappointing. In that case there wouldn't be chicks and the hen very likely could've eaten them.

Hope this helps and everything goes well!