Egg eating mystery :(

[arr36]

Earlier, 8 chicken eggs I had laced on top of our duck house simply disappeared. They were definitely there and approx 2h later when I returned to carry them into the house, they'd gone. There was zero sign of them having rolled off, no broken shells or yolks and no signs of any yolk on a chickens beak. We've never had any eggs eaten before and aren't aware of any predators around really.

I was ****** off but this evening I'm dismayed. Our Muscovy duck was sitting on 3 eggs inside the duck house. This evening is day 10 and I decided to candle them and there's only one left (there were definitely 3 this morning). It's fertile and developing but its siblings have gone . I can't help but feel the culprit must be the same duck/chicken/poltergeist. Anyone else had this? Could it be the drake? Or the broody duck?

I'm so upset

 

[Tony K T]

Crows love eggs.
In N.H.,Tony.

 

[appps]

I would think if they are anything like chickens that one bird eating 8 eggs would have left some sort of mess unless they could swallow them whole. Sounds more like something is carrying them off.

 

[arr36]

I spied a very suspicious looking crow over the weekend hovering near the chickens. I put out an egg and watched. Ducks and hens didn't show any interest in the egg but the crow swooped down and snatched it. Grrrr.

 

[KenoyerWeyr16]

I have a similar mystery. I have 3 duck eggs and had one smaller egg that was out in the pen, not in the coop. I put the smaller egg in with the bigger 3 so I could see what it was from since all my ducks have bigger eggs. I had left and was only gone for a few hours and when I came back one duck egg was by the door and the smaller egg was totally gone. Scooby doo where are you?? Lol

 

[DucksAndGardens]

Do you have rats? I have seen rats carry off my duck eggs before when the ducks lay them out in the field. They will roll or carry them off. Industrious little critters.

 

[Duck Drover]

The crows take off with our eggs too! The chickens lay in the coops but the ducks will not use the many shelters we have out for them. When they are ready to sit on a nest they hide it pretty well but if they are not thinking about nesting we find eggs sitting on the ground in the open. The trick is to collect them before the crows spy them but the crows hang out in the trees waiting for eggs to appear.

We lose so many eggs to crows and if we don't put netting over a mother with her new babies the crows will take the ducklings too. We have a safe pen we have to round up the families into or else take the ducklings away to keep them safe. The crows have even taken off with baby bunnies too and they are strong enough to take the head off a bunny after it has opened its eyes and leaves the nest box. The crows are our worst predator.