seeds disappearing?

I’m experiencing something strange … my seed count has been getting lower over the last few days. It’s not because I’ve been giving them away. I always forget to do that, for one thing, and for another I’ve been sick for days and not visiting the site.

I’m not really a huge fan of the seed system because I’d rather have comments and I find folks comment less now that they can just give a seed. But I’m curious as to why they are disappearing. Is there some kind of message I should be getting? I didn’t think seeds could be taken away but am I mistaken?