Fake eggs missing

[ollienina]

I recently bought some very realistic fake eggs at an estate sale. My daughter convinced me to put them in our chickens nesting box to encourage them to lay more.

These eggs looked so much like what ours lay that we marked them with a sticker so we would not accidentally pick them up. They were either wooden or resin, but were solid, yet similar weight to our eggs.

Yesterday my daughter noticed they were missing. We had 3 eggs but not the fake ones.

We live in a very urban area and have lots of feral cats and squirrels around. Our dogs cannot get in with the chickens.

What could have taken our eggs? And then left the good eggs?

I have appreciated and enjoyed all your conversations and learned so much about caring for chickens from so many of you.

Thanks for any help!
Jerri Locke
Love havi

 

[7L Farm]

Snake!!

 

[ollienina]

I can't imagine a snake large enough to eat eggs when I live close enough to downtown Dallas that I can see the skyline.

 

[7L Farm]

HaHa!! Don't be fooled snakes are everywhere. I grew up in Houston, Tx hate to admit but its a great place to make a buck. I now live at our farm here in Texas. Years ago we found a six foot long gopher snake in our garage up on a shelf in Houston, Texas. Snakes can find your eggs. Here's a rat snake I found in one of my coops that had eaten a fake egg.

 

[ollienina]

Get out of here! Oh my gosh! Did the fake egg end up killing the snake?

 

[ollienina]

And a quick update, one of the eggs is back but a considerable distance from the nest. I think I will take someone else's advice and put some plastic Easter eggs out there and see what happens.