Egg eating broody????

[Nicos]

Just wondering where one of the eggs has gone to which was being brooded by one of my gals.

She's a banty and I gave here 4 standard sized eggs to sit on.

Yesterday there were only 3 when OH went to check on her.

The mesh from the front of her box had become dislodged ( now sorted)- so there are three possibilities that I can think of.....

firstly- another chook got in with her , crushed an egg and then the whole thing was eaten
or...
secondly - the broody was struggling with the size so she either pushed it out of her nest and then ate it,
or ...
thirdly - same idea of struggling covering them so she decided to push it out of the box and it rolled out onto the floor below and another chook ate it.

The second view reminds me of when I bred bunnies and if there were too many babies to feed , the mom would eat a couple so the rest had more milk.

Has anyone else had an experience of a disappearing egg- shell; and all???

( and nope- I really don't think it'd be a rat/weasel etc as there were other laid eggs elsewhere in the coop which would be much easier to take.)

Hmmm....your thoughts????

[Glutton4...]

If they eat it, there is always shell left, in my experience. I have had them stolen by Rolands in the past.

[Suechooks]

I'm sure there was something about this ages ago. Maybe she knew the egg was infertile and decided to get rid of it that way?

[RichmondHens]

Have you searched the nest really thoroughly? I say this because I had an Orpington who "lost" two eggs earlier this year while brooding. Initially I thought they had been stolen by magpies (we have a lot about) and I did find one broken later on in the grass outside, but once the rest had hatched and the hen took the chicks outside I cleaned out all the bedding as I normally do and there was the missing egg, tucked well up in a corner.

I think it is unlikely your hen has eaten the egg, more likely it was either broken and eaten by another hen or taken by a predator, or like mine, it may still be there hiding in the bedding. If you do find it and it is cold, throw it away, it will be no good now.

Hope you solve the mystery. It's always annoying when you don't quite know what has happened to something.

[Snadger]

I'm sure there was something about this ages ago. Maybe she knew the egg was infertile and decided to get rid of it that way?

My thoughts as well Sue!

[Scarlet]

If you really can't find any shell, I would plump for Roland too!