Eggs vanishing with no trace. Need ideas.

[cmom]

Shoot the squirrels. We would have so many if I didn't eliminate some. We have both Fox Squirrels and Gray Squirrels. The Fox Squirrels are no problem but the Gray Squirrels are. I eliminate them and still see more in our area, but when they come on our property and I get the opportunity it's bye bye. A friend had Fox Squirrels but the Gray's have moved in and he doesn't have anymore Fox Squirrels. The Gray's have driven them out.

 

[cmom]

I hope you have a game camera up.

 

[HH.Wench]

Squirrels spread Lepto to dogs, which is deadly btw. Never hurts to eliminate them.

 

[lifein1840]

Hungry neighbor.....

 

[MontanaChickDoc]

I can't wait to see what it is. And I never knew squirrels ate eggs! I've found a skunk in our nest boxes twice, when I forgot to turn the electric fencing back on. Thank goodness I checked with a flashlight instead of just reaching in blindly in the dark. Gawd. We just recently set up a game camera in the woods behind the coop and have photographed deer, fox, skunk, racoon and I think a coyote (that one was an odd angle and hard to tell for sure). I never knew there was so much traffic 15 feet into the woods. Haven't spotted the bear yet, which is why we got the camera in the first place. One night I went out to find a brand new 50lb bag of food out of its metal trashcan, dragged 20 feet away (with a trail of crumble the whole way) and empty. This was INSIDE the electric fence. Found a big pile of fresh bear scat in the woods behind the coop. Now we keep the food in the shed. I guess he wasn't hungry enough to break into the coops - I've heard they will tear doors off. And our piddly electric fence is meant for small stuff like foxes.

 

[Old Philosopher]

Definitely get a game cam. One good enough for your purpose can be had now for $50-$80. A big live trap will cost about the same, but trapping takes some study.
I had a critter problem where something was springing my Havahart live trap that I always used for skunks and Norwegian rats. Set after set, and the bait was gone, trap sprung and no catch. I finally set up one of my game cams and had the answer the next day: a big boar skunk that was as big as the trap! He'd push in, get the chow and back out again. I got a 'coon-sized trap and spoiled the skunk's whole month!
When I finally got him, he weighed in at just under 12 pounds. Average for a big male adult striped skunk is about 8 pounds. My next door neighbor lost 17 chickens in less than a week. She encountered the skunk raider one night by flashlight, and thought she'd stumbled upon a wolverine, it appeared so large in the dark. I'm pretty sure the one I trapped was the bad guy, 'cause nobody lost any more chickens after he went away.

 

[Old Philosopher]

Hungry neighbor.....

I lost a Brahman hen to such a predator once. The white chicken was the only one they could see inside the dark coop, so they grabbed it and ran.

 

[Shblack]

I vote for snakes. We are plagued with them, when egg production drops off and the ladies seem edgy I start looking for snakes. I have lost track of how many I have removed, found a brown rat snake last year that was nearly 6’ long, had four bulges when I evicted it from the coop. Eggs disappear without a Trace. When one our hens tried to eat eggs she left a mess, bits of shell, yoke etc.
BTW - not sure a game camera would trigger on a snake, movement is slow, marginal thermal signature

 

[corn flake]

dBe careful!!!! I cant stress it enough. I had eggs going missing 4-6 at a time. Couldn't figure it out for over a week. I was trying to let a few hens hatch a couple of eggs. They would all go to bed at night and be up bright and early waiting to get let out. I had a brooder laying on 8 eggs at one time. The next day or 2. All the eggs were gone. Couldn't believe it. Well, I figured since no eggs and , no one is laying on any, I may as well change the hay in nesting boxes. Okay , be prepared. I started at the top boxes , grabbed a few handfuls of hay. No problem. Getting the bottom layer well, there was a surprise waiting. I accidentally grabbed a 6.5 ft long chicken snake buried under their hay. Freaked me out. I got him/her out with a stick and turned it loose out in the woods about 2 acres away. Went back to change the rest of the boxes and, whoa!!! , another one in a different nest. The hay wasnt disurbed . Padded down like normal. But, just be careful they can hide in the hay or wood chips and you cant even tell. I thot something was up when, my plastic egg went missing

 

[Arwon]

Right, silly me- the ones that vomit the shells back up are one particular, relatively small species. They crack the egg in their throat and spit the shell out so they don't have to deal with the bulk. A rat snake or similar is big enough to swallow the whole egg and not have much of a bulge as a result. Especially a six-foot snake.
Don't kill the snakes, by the way. You want those around to eat rodents, and also just in general to keep the ecosystem stable. Just make your coop snake-proof. It should be snake-proofed anyway, because if a snake can get in, so can a weasel, and a weasel will kill your birds.

I still vote for a game camera, and checking very thoroughly in case something hid them.

I had the same problem, set up a game camera and a marked egg, saw a mouse, crow, chickens but not the culprit? Im betting it was a python, have had them before and if you dont sort them out they keep coming back, when there are no eggs they go for your birds.