This doesn't look good to me...

[Ginene]

I noticed this yellow dried streak on top of a zebra nest today. It looks like egg yolk to me. I scratched it with my finger nail and it felt like dried raw yolk. There were no other signs of a broken egg in the cage. I looked at the vents on my birds and everything seems normal. Does anyone have any experience with this?

[Toddmin]

Where they sitting on eggs?

[Ginene]

inside this nest there is a hen with 1 egg.

[Sally]

Certainly looks like egg yolk. She may have laid an egg on top of the nest, the egg broke right there, the shell fell to the bottom of cage, the birds ate the shell. Or, she passed a soft-shelled or shell-less egg.

[Ginene]

Thanks for the feedback Sally. Hopefully its exactly as you said, and nothing is wrong with one of my girls. I appreciate the feedback as I am a new finch mommy and want to do the best for our birds

[Jeff McKee]

Birds break their eggs. Sometimes there isn't any apparent evidence. You look at the records and it says four eggs, and there are only two in the nest.... hmmmm.... then look around the cage, and find no evidence...

Why?

Perhaps they feel threatened. They also seem to know when there isn't life in the eggs, at some point in time.

They aren't all sweetness and innocence, like one my superficially believe at first!

[Ginene]

Jeff - Makes sense. Nature @ work...Just thought it was strange to find that streak of yolk along the top and side of the bamboo nest. Just hope my hens are all ok. Thanks for your feedback.