Disapearing Eggs???

[CrappieSlayer34]

I know that my coop is not bullet proof and a lot of things can get into there. So here goes the specifics of my issue.

All of my birds are young. Right around 8 mths, they should be laying. Have not got any eggs so far this year till I confined them all in a dog run while we had our wedding.

The morning after they were confined I had 4 eggs in there.

I have around 30 hens running loose, free ranging if you want to call it that. But after turning them loose on the yard and they go back to their hen house. No more eggs.

I have around 15 egg boxes. 3 different types of boxes. No eggs.

So is something taking them.??? I have trapped 1 skunk this year and 1 possum. Could it be a snake.

Or could they just be starting to lay slowly?

They are black aussies and rhode island reds. Both breeds should be laying at 8 mths???

I am so confused and getting concerned. Dunno what to do.

Thank You.

 

[emmyeagle]

Have you looked all over their yard? They can be hiding eggs. Found one of ours laying behind a pile of scrap metal. I can't even retrieve them! Silly bird!

 

[Rainier]

Have you looked all over their yard? They can be hiding eggs. Found one of ours laying behind a pile of scrap metal. I can't even retrieve them! Silly bird!

Had the same thing happen to us. Found a nest in our shed behind a piece of metal roofing. Nest had 12 eggs in it! That nest is my profile picture. We were getting some eggs in the nest boxes but not what we should have been getting.

 

[jbaliberti]

before we got our own flock we lived on a farm. They had both free range and confined hens. The free range hens would lay everywhere. They mostly laid in the bush next to the front porch (thats where they felt safest). They had another issue of disappearing eggs with the confined hens. They had one hen that just went broody and stole all the eggs being laid by other hens and they found her wedged under the coop sitting on all the eggs trying to hatch them. Not sure if any of this helps but maybe it will help with thinking outside the box when it comes to figuring out where your eggs are being laid.

 

[RB Farms]

Possums, I had one stealing and eating my chickens eggs before.