I swear I don't remember ever seeing the 60 second time limit on incubation. I always stayed near because I was afraid someone else would get it. But, in my back yard? Really?
Learned this the hard way too, only in my case I had about half a dozen going and being incredibly lagged out I thought, "hey, no problem, I'l just reload real quick".. Nope! that's the same effect as changing streets.
I don't think it's an issue of someone else getting the babies after incubation (I think they're just lost) so your back yard wouldn't be any different from other areas.
I accidentally entered the tower instead of selecting the chicken I wanted to incubate my butterfly egg, and lost the three eggs I'd already set. Fortunately I have plenty, but it was a bit annoying.
Sticking around to read long chat from animals/trees isn't on my to do list, because of all the gathering, planting, shucking, munching, feeding, and selling! Thought the chickens' bubble always told me not to go far and I didn't. Hadn't noticed the text about the 60 seconds. Always thought the baby animal would drop to ground if you weren't on the street. Learn something new everyday!
@deeply confused
Are you feeding them properly? The will survive on dropped food longer than no food, but not for as long as with a feeder. They also don't thrive if you rely on a tree/s, without supplementary feeding
After enough meat gets nibbled from piggies, they burst into a smokey, bacon-scented pink cloud. Or, they get fed up with their horrible living conditions and run away, not even leaving a note. They do leave behind a few meats. Don't ever eat these! Feed them to other pigs or batterflies, or donate them!
IrenicRhonda: I have had 14 (now 15) pigs on my street with only trees since we transferred over to New Housing. Have never lost one. My trees get petted and watered regularly, though, because I have a lot of vistors.