Eggs missing inside electrified meadow.

[kaumlauf]

Most likely it is a snake. A few years ago, I had many snakes eating the eggs. We got rid of the snakes and then had a huge rat problem. The rats will bust the eggs in place and eat them. So...got rid of the rats and all was well for a few months. Now, the rats are back (baby season) and I have seen an Eastern rat snake near the coop. So since I now only have 2 laying hens (due to a huge predator issue) so I have maybe 1 or 2 eggs a week between teh rats and the snake. Ahhhh, gotta love country living!

woah. you have had some terrible problems with rats and snakes. We had a rat in our house once. It was tough to get rid of. You have my sympathies. I'll look for a snake under the coop.

 

[kaumlauf]

50% reduction in one fell swoop is pretty significant. You might try increasing feed just a bit.

I have increased it back up to their regular amount. We'll see. I was hoping to get them interested in the wild grass seed, bugs and other things in the meadow. But maybe that was too drastic.

 

[kaumlauf]

woah. you have had some terrible problems with rats and snakes. We had a rat in our house once. It was tough to get rid of. You have my sympathies. I'll look for a snake under the coop.

How large does a snake have to be before it can swallow a chicken's egg?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I have increased it back up to their regular amount. We'll see. I was hoping to get them interested in the wild grass seed, bugs and other things in the meadow. But maybe that was too drastic.

That may do the trick. While chickens can glean some nutrition from foraging, it is the rare forage that can supply the diverse nutrition chickens need to maintain production, body maintenance and disease resistance that a complete chicken feed can. These aren't your grandparent's chickens. Grass has almost no nutritional value to hens. The seed is ok for part of the nutrition but is very limited in essential amino acids. The bugs will supply some but the chickens will wipe them out in short order.
When did you start this experiment.
I once met a neighbor at the local feed store. He said he wanted to buy some of my birds because he said his hens were 'broken'. He said they quit laying eggs. I asked what he was feeding and he said, "scratch". I said, "what else". He said, "just scratch".
I said, "you're starving them". I told him to get a proper layer feed and lose the scratch. A month later they started laying again.

 

[kaumlauf]

That may do the trick. While chickens can glean some nutrition from foraging, it is the rare forage that can supply the diverse nutrition chickens need to maintain production, body maintenance and disease resistance that a complete chicken feed can. These aren't your grandparent's chickens. Grass has almost no nutritional value to hens. The seed is ok for part of the nutrition but is very limited in essential amino acids. The bugs will supply some but the chickens will wipe them out in short order.
When did you start this experiment.
I once met a neighbor at the local feed store. He said he wanted to buy some of my birds because he said his hens were 'broken'. He said they quit laying eggs. I asked what he was feeding and he said, "scratch". I said, "what else". He said, "just scratch".
I said, "you're starving them". I told him to get a proper layer feed and lose the scratch. A month later they started laying again.

I started reducing their layer feed a couple of weeks ago....so you may be right.