Egg Eater/Losing Feathers

[momofmany10]

My hens were sitting on 5 eggs for the past 2 weeks atleast. Each day I go out and have 1 less egg than the day before. It disappears. Shell and all. We are now down to 1 egg. Dont know if it has anything to do with the egg eating issue or not but last night I did notice one of the hens has a patch on her back of feathers missing. Had not noticed it before so Im not exactly sure how long that has been going on. Please help!!!

 

[chicmom]

Hi! Have you seen alot of feathers lying around lately? Could your flock be starting to molt? I would pick up the hen with the bald patch, and see if she has any mites or lice. They can pick that up from wild birds......Sometimes if they get parasites, egg production will go down. If you see any critters on them, dust them thoroughly with Seven Dust, and repeat in about 2 weeks to kill the eggs.

Those are just a few things that could cause lower egg production. Hope this helps!

Sharon

 

[debid]

If there is not a fragment of shell or smear of egg left behind, an egg-eating chicken is not likely the culprit. How secure is your coop? Snakes swallow eggs whole leaving no evidence whatsoever that they've been there other than the missing egg.

As for missing feathers, if it's just above the tail, that can be from rooster treading or picking but I'd definitely check for mites/lice as well.

 

[momofmany10]

Thanks so much for the help!!! I checked for the mites and didnt find anything. So maybe its just the roaster treading. But I will definately be keeping an eye on her. Im not sure about the snakes. We have only lived on this property for 2 months. Haven't seen any snakes but I'm sure thats a possibility. Not knowing for sure is driving me crazy. Thanks again for the help!!!