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I have a situation and I am not sure what happened.

This concerns one of my pairs of AGCs that laid four eggs. Two weeks ago one of the eggs hatched into the first chick of that nest. I continued to monitor the nest and I could of SWORN a few days later I noticed a 2nd chick in this nest.

Now, in this nest, is one chick and one unhatched egg. Ive looked long and hard (at night too) and this is all that now apears in the nest, along with a very small shard of egg shell.

My question is... what happened to the other two eggs (and maybe the 2nd chick I "thought" I noticed two weeks ago)? If the other two eggs where infertile, then they should be sitting there next to the sole egg left in this nest right? Why would two eggs "disapear" from this nest? Would parents eat the egg and the eggshell? And if they would, why diddint they eat the sole egg left in the nest?

I tried banding the chick a couple days ago and the size 14 bane would slip right off the legg, telling me this chick must not be the full two week old baby that first hatched. I'm suspecting this is the 2nd born baby of the nest, not yet old enough for the leg band. But then.... what has happned to the first born?

Either: a) there was no 2nd chick, and im somehow getting confused, and the chick I tried to unsucessfuly band is just maybe underwieght/a slow grower. The two missing eggs maybe broke and where eaten by the parents.

or

b) There where two chicks and something happened to one of them (most likely the older of the two, since a band will not fit on what is supposed to be a 2 week old chick and its really the 2nd born younger one). There is no blood or body parts in the nest that I can see, so Im not seeing how a predator or the parents killed the baby. Or worse, someone jumped my fence in the night and stole the baby? (which is hard for me to belive, I dont live in that kind of neighborhood and have never been the victum of robbery before, that and im almost always home)

Im pretty confused and wanted to know what people thought. I'm mostly very perplexed on what happened to the two other eggs. One chick is in the nest, and one egg... in a nest that use to have FOUR eggs. Someone please give me insight.

I've got two possibles I've experienced (with other species). One, the first baby died for some reason and it got buried under the nesting material. It happened to me and even though I felt around for the baby, I didn't find it and was sure the parents must have eaten it. Turns out it somehow got buried and then the egg ended up on top of it. The only place I didn't check as I didn't want to touch/disturb the egg. Second, The parents smashed/ate the eggs, including the shells. Had that happen last year with a young pair. This year am putting in a spy camera with night vision so I can see exactly why they are doing it and who. If it's an accident, deliberate, the male or female.

If it happens again for you, I would suggest doing the same. It's the only way for you to know for sure......

There can be a few scenarios - sometimes chicks hatch out and can die or the parents don't feed and they die, then they might eat their chick to get rid of the remains. Many hens will eat the shell soon after a chick hatches out to get rid of it as she will benefit the calcium from it. If the egg in the nest should break they will often eat it too. Some parents eat chicks immediately for a snack after chick hatches out and eats the shell as well. If an egg did break and was infertile, the insides of the egg consisting of the yolk and white part would possibly leak into the nesting material and I'd think you might feel some matted or stiff nesting after it has dried, I know I have experienced that before.

If this pair you have is fairly new at this then anything can be possible but then I've seen older pairs do strange things too that have experience in raising babies.

Perhaps you were not fully sure on what was in the nest as I know sometimes it's hard to tell especially with a protective hen as she rolls her eggs to keep them from you or her chicks and it's often hard to tell in counting what is in there as it might look like more there than what really is.

Then again if you looked in the nestbox to many times then you have upset the hen and she chose to eat the babies. It has happened many times and birds just don't like being bothered to many times before they say I will show you and eat the babies and the eggshell and then we will start all over and maybe this time you won't be so nestbox door happy. I have known of babies that were two weeks old and the mother ate them and left not a sign of a former baby even being in the nestbox. We live and we learn and some birds will let you take the babies out and others don't want you to look at them or their babies. Banding babies is hard one to call as some babies grow quicker than others and so it is a guessing game. One day the band won't fit and the next day even with soap and a toothpick you can't even get that band to fit no matter how hard you try.Whatever you do don't go bigger on a band then what the charts call for or it will get you in trouble. Bands still to this day get caught on cage bowl holders, cage wire and wire grates in the bottom of the cages. If you use a bigger band then what the charts call for just to get a band on the baby it will cause you more harm then good.

Denis http://WWW.Platinumaviary.com