MIGHT AS WELL BE AN EMPTY NEST

American Robin's (Turdus migratorius) nest that used to be on my neighbor's front porch among the flower pots.  I found it on my outside picnic table this morning.  It used to have 4 little blue eggs in it but one disappeared.  Ma Robin incubated these eggs for several days and then just stopped.  I suspect they were infertile.  I don't know how they know.....but they know and just abandon the nest.
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It could be that she was never mated and laid infertile eggs to begin with.  Chickens, like most birds, lay an egg a day...fertile or not. They are pre-programmed to lay a certain number of them that corresponds to how much room there is in the brood pouch.  Then they stop laying and start to brood so that all the eggs hatch within a day or two of the others.  It's easier to keep track of the whole bunch if they all hatch at the same time.
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Chickens are not really the Einsteins of the bird world.  The are programmed to lay about 12 eggs before they start brooding...depending on the breed of the chicken.  HOWEVER......if you remove the daily egg before the evening roost, she will never figure out that she's already laid an egg so she will lay another one....and will keep on laying as long as you keep taking the eggs away.
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Depending on age and breed, a typical chicken will lay around 200 eggs per year.  Then she is sold to "The Colonel" and replaced before it costs more to feed her than she returns in egg profits.  Robins are not sold for human consumption but will lay several nests full in a year.  Our Northern Midwest Robins fly south for the winter ( T. migratorius) and often nest down there as well.
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It's illegal to keep the nest of a wild bird...not a lot of humans know that they are subject to fine if caught with a bird's nest.  The only exception would be licensed collectors and museums.  This nest will be thrown into the garbage.  Shame to destroy such a work of art......or Betty, in this case.  The females do all the nest making....and they do it without ever taking a lesson.  They just know!
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BIOLOGY LESSON OF THE DAY:   Have you ever cracked an egg and thrown it into the pan for frying and noticed some little "twisted things" on either side of the yolk?  Many people believe that these are "baby" chickens.....embryos, as it were.  Couldn't be farther from the truth.  The yolk is suspended in the egg white which is quite viscous.  As the eggs are moved around  the egg white moves around the yolk which remains relatively steady.  As the egg white moves, it gets twisted up on either side of the yolk....look carefully and you will see that it is so.  They are not "embryo" chickens.....it's just twisted up egg white.  Those structures have a name....Chalaza (Cha Lay' Za)....the plural of which is Chalaze (Cha Lay' Zee).  Thus endeth the biology lesson for the day.
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Oh....do have some fun with this tidbit of biological information.  You'll find that 90% of your friends have ho idea about chalazae.

And a HUGE THANK YOU to all my Blip friends for all your well wishes and prayers for my wife.  Surgery is over and she returned home this afternoon.  Still sore from the gall bladder surgery but the source of pain is gone.  Sore is still pain, of course, but it's a 1 or 2 on the pain scale compared to yesterday which was an 8 or 9 out of 10.  Much improved.