will a hen eat her unhatched eggs?!?!

[2overeasy]

So, what, does the chicken just stand up and step aside for the snake?

 

[cerridwenn]

crows - put shiny things around in places far away from the coop. not joking - crows love shiny things.

snake - no but often the chicken gets frightened away for long enough. they do understand the danger. and it's better if they do because if they don't, a constrictor will strangle her and then eat the eggs or chicks, and a venomous species will bite her and then eat them. so better if she gets up off the nest, imo.

 

[jaywin]

Best thing to get rid of crows is to hang a dead one nearby. This seems to serve as a warning to the others and has been used for many years. I also had a crow stealing fertile eggs I sell for hatching - pure breed Australorps. I hung a decoy dead crow and also blew some eggs and filled with mustard! Stopped the egg thief straight away!

 

[Chicksonly777]

I posted yesterday about my hen hatching out 1 chick on Tuesday and as of yesterday still sitting on 5 eggs. this afternoon I went to check on them and no eggs. None. No shell or anything. Just mama and 1 chick. They were there this morning. We have 1 cat that roams around but he's generally scared of the chickens. Besides he wouldn't eat 5 eggs w/out a trace - would he?
She began sitting on eggs in a nesting box about 2 1/2 ft off floor. On Monday I moved her and eggs to a box on the hen house floor with chick feeder and waterer. On Tuesday single chick hatched. I've been watching ever since, looking to see if eggs had pipped.
So this is strange. Would a raccoon or other predator go in there during the day? gomer (head rooster) didn't sound any major alarms today (but he does tend to cry wolf, at times).
So, my question: will the hen eat her unhatched eggs???

I have four backyard chickens. Only one went broody. My neighbor had some fertilized eggs and gave me three for my broody hen to sit on. She’s been on them for 19 days. We started with three and in the last week we’re down to one and now we have none. They all look guilty. Like they’ve all eaten them. Not sure what happened but experiment failed miserably.

 

[Tired old Rooster]

I don't think I have another hen who eats eggs - I generally get almost 1 egg per day per hen. But lately the numbers have dropped a bit. Hm. How do I catch an egg-eater?

Supervise closely, the culprit will quite literally have egg on their face.

 

[jpalmatier83]

Supervise closely, the culprit will quite literally have egg on their face.

Another method I’ve heard is to blow out an egg and fill the shell with mustard. It’ll stain more than yolk and also dissuade further egg eating.