To update on this post...
I set some sticky traps in a nest box and sealed it off and left a little hole. I caught a bunch of MICE...not rats! Granted they were big but definitely mice.
I couldn't believe that mice could carry off eggs ...so finally we decided to fix the coop. We tore the...
Well hopefully if I can remove as many of the rats as possible the stress will be gone...I have about 20 hens in there now and I do usually get some eggs in the winter...admittedly not so many...but usually a few a day.
so I may have been a bit slow in seeing this problem...I have 3 coops and one of my coops had been empty for a while. It's a big shed with a side run...pretty old. we replaced the floor a couple of years ago and fixed some wall issues but it would have to be burned down and rebuilt to rodent...