If another one is gone in a few days, you may have a black snake in the coop/shed, or with an access hole to it. It doesn't have to be a very big hole for him/her to get in, I have seen a photo of a black snake that had eaten an egg, and then didn't fit out the hole it came in by - half in and then 'corked' half out. One way to find the hole, I guess. I can't see a rat taking only one egg, though it might (try setting a rat trap where the hen can't get at it, to remove that possibility) and 'coons or 'possums would take the hen. The other possibility is that the hen accidentally broke it and ate it, but this seems unlikely.

OMG, Evelyn! If you knew how many baby mockingbirds I hand fed while working at Audubon, you'd die! People would bring in baby birds all day long, and you couldn't convince them to leave them alone, so my job was to take care of them and get them prepared to be released back into the wild later on. One of the reasons we do not encourage people "rescuing" the baby birds is that there comes a time when the bird has imprinted so strongly on the parent bird, it will not take food from a person. You can cram it down their throats, but it will just sit in the crop area and not be digested. So removing them from the parent's care is often a death sentence. Now if a whole nest comes down (like during a storm) sometimes there is no recourse but to rescue them and try to feed them. And I know techniques have improved GREATLY from the days I was involved in bird rescue. So the odds might be better now. But lordy, lordy...I must have handraised at least 200 baby mockingbirds in a couple years time. Not to mention jays, grackles, thrashers, titmice, and maybe 1,000 mourning doves! (My least favorite baby birds of all time.) Anyway, your picture is a trip down memory lane for sure. Saintp, the length of time it takes an egg to hatch varies from species to species, but usually it is not very long. A week or ten days, often. I'll see if I can find out about bluejays. I don't remember. Maybe I never even knew. But the info is probably out there somewhere. Will get back to you later. Marcia

Thanks Paul, Their nests are so cool, and VERY hard to see! I found 2 in the Fall one year, but this is the first time I've ever seen one in use. I probably would have gone all summer without seeing it, except that I was walking under a pine tree branch and suddenly heard a hummer take off. That make me look really closely.....and there it was! Even now when I look for it, I have to look for awhile. They're so cool!

My guess would be that the hatchlings died and the parents disposed of them. I've seen this on numerous occasions--especially during a cold, wet spring. We once had a pair nesting in a yew right under our window. We watched them sit and hatch 4 nestlings. One week the weather turned, and the nestlings died. We watched as one of the parents picked up a dead chick and flew off. I guess that explains why occasionally you'll find a dead baby bird in the middle of nowhere. I think this has been a particularly tough spring. I've noticed more failed nesting attempts at our houses than usual.