Eggs vanishing with no trace. Need ideas.

[HH.Wench]

Eggs are disappearing here. Here are the details, need ideas:

Chickens are not reacting or screaming at all to whatever is entering coop.

I left a clutch of 3 eggs in the coop all week and we made sure to lock it up each night - nothing was taken.

Whatever is taking them goes in precisely between 7 am when my husband lets them out, and 12 when I check on them. All 3 large eggs gone again without a trace - no yolks or breakage.

We have been checking the coop like crazy, often 3 times a day looking for snakes. Monitoring it from a distance out the window 10 times a day hoping to see something coming or going - nothing. Nothing up in the rafters or hiding.

This area is snake infested. But I have no idea how a snake is doing it with the coop being heavily watched - and snakes are slow and tend to hang out while they eat.

I plan on buying a live trap and filling it with eggs, but can a live trap even catch a large snake if it is a snake?

What else could it be that is that stealthy and invisible, taking a whole clutch of eggs at once?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Are you sure the chickens aren't eating them? Why are you leaving eggs out?

Rats will take eggs, as well as skunk, opossum, Fox, coyote, to name a few.

You could get a game camera and point it at the nest to see.

 

[HH.Wench]

Are you sure the chickens aren't eating them? Why are you leaving eggs out?

Rats will take eggs, as well as skunk, opossum, Fox, coyote, to name a few.

You could get a game camera and point it at the nest to see.

Chickens aren't eating them because there is nothing pecked or broken with yolk in bedding. They are just going poof with no trace.

We left a clutch of marked eggs out all week to try to pinpoint how many were vanishing, and when.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Definitely get a game camera if you can. They are invaluable to figuring out predators.

 

[Fishkeeper]

I don't think a live trap would work for a snake, not least because the snake would probably not go all the way into the trap. I'd get a game camera. A snake would probably spit up the shell anyway, so you'd see that.

Are you sure a hen didn't just tuck the eggs away somewhere in a nest?

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

Chickens aren't eating them because there is nothing pecked or broken with yolk in bedding. They are just going poof with no trace.

We left a clutch of marked eggs out all week to try to pinpoint how many were vanishing, and when.

Kind of a pricey option, but I got a wireless Arlo camera to position at the coop to help with questions like this...

 

[DellaMyDarling]

I vote a hungry hen.

I had an egg eater that frequently ate the entire egg and left no trace. Took a while to figure it out. Interesting how she wouldn't eat Derpy's white eggs, or the two blue eggs, just brown ones (like her own.)
She's in my crock pot right now.

 

[sealer39]

I’ve never personally done this but I’ve read on here that snakes will eat ceramic eggs. If the do, it will kill them because they can’t pass them. You could try those (or golf balls) and see if they disappear also. If they disappear also, you may have just solved your problem.

I don’t know how big your coop is but a three hour stake out inside a coop is not that long if you can do it.

 

[aart]

I plan on buying a live trap and filling it with eggs

Get a minnow trap.

 

[HH.Wench]

Can a hen really eat 3 large eggs at once and leave no trace of yolk or anything on the pine? There are only 4 hens in this pen and they all use the same 1 nest.