Eggs vanishing with no trace. Need ideas.

[member 158781]

I did not say your situation was funny. I meant it as "funny you mention that as my husband just wondered if a person was taking them..." funny, like a coincidence this happened to you...

Sorry, I thought you called us funny people, meaning we’re weird.

 

[Cryss]

Following. My curiosity is up!

 

[Crzy Chi Lady]

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.

I am with you Della! Chickens will eat up every bit of the egg evidence. Even if its on the bedding. We had a gofer snake get into the coop once. That was his last time. Girls took care of business.

 

[Kabootar]

Are you still loosing eggs from the coop?

 

[HH.Wench]

Are you still loosing eggs from the coop?

The coop is currently lifted off the ground being turned into a 2 story condo coop. Will know more in a week when its back to normal with no people around building the addition and spooking everything.

Putting a live trap out this week just to get rid of the gray squirrels running amok. After they are gone, will be able to tell if the eggs are still going poof. Then we move to a game cam.

 

[cmom]

 

[qwigoqwaga]

We put a trail cam outside our coop and found that crows were stealing our eggs. We noticed when I put a couple wooden eggs in the nesting box to encourage our new chickens to lay there and they disappeared. We have occasionally found some eggshell bits in the yard, but there was no trace of most eggs. The crows didn't seem to be able to steal large eggs, though. We put netting over the top of our run and we haven't been missing any eggs since.

 

[HH.Wench]

Update: So far I caught 2 opossums and a small 3 ft rat snake in 1 week. Ive seen massive 6 footers nearby. I was down to a single hen who was still laying in that coop, and she just died after a permethrin dip, so the rest of that flock will be culled this week since they no longer lay. Will continue to keep the live traps out to see what else wanders through to scope out the pullets. Since no one is laying eggs now in there, its impossible to tell - New egg layers in the brooder will go back out in a few weeks.

 

[aart]

I was down to a single hen who was still laying in that coop, and she just died after a permethrin dip, so the rest of that flock will be culled this week since they no longer lay.

Did she aspirate it?
You know your other birds are probably molting and will recommence laying after the molt is done.

 

[HH.Wench]

Did she aspirate it?
You know your other birds are probably molting and will recommence laying after the molt is done.

They stopped laying all winter 2018 (sub tropical climate), laid a few in the spring including tiny eggs and jelly eggs, then stopped all summer long. As far as I know she didnt aspirate and her head was above the whole time. She just went down and never recovered after the dip - the rest had zero reaction with exact same dip.