Found missing eggs

[scarter]

I have been missing several eggs at a time and then today got the mower out and found two nest! Lost eggs are found. Strange thing is that they aren't one chicken's eggs but a variety. Isn't that weird?

 

[gritsar]

More than one hen contributing to the stash. I've heard of it happening. Now to convince them to start laying in their nest boxes again. Naughty chickens!

 

[Cats Critters]

strange thing is that they aren't one chicken's eggs but a variety. Isn't that weird?

Not really, hens lay where their sister/flock mates lay because their instincts tell them to, to make a clutch of eggs to sit on.​

 

[scarter]

Ahhh I get that. About 1/2 of them lay in our hay which is fine if they just pick a spot but no they can't be that easy can they? If we have them locked in the coop cause of too cold or nasty weather they go crazy to get out and then the hay layers RUN to the hay and wait in line for a spot in which ever nest. It does make sense that they would all lay there if one was now.

 

[montcapu]

I actually had one of my chickens decide to lay else where, she is aracana, so she lays blue eggs, the first time I found her nest quite quickly she was always coming out of the woods, I started there and only a few feet in I found them, I took them and she started to aly in the hen house again, but a few days later no blue egg, and since she is the only one that lays blue eggs I knew she was laying somewhere again, I searched and searched but with no luck, I follwed her as much as I could but with no prevail, Ijust figured she might be going broody and wanting a clutch of eggs, so I stopped looking for them.
one day we were cleaning up a debri pile that was here when we moved in, and I lifted some wood and she had made a nest under the pile, she had about 10 I believe, I marked them and left them be incase she wanted to lay, but she kept laying there for another week, so I pitched the marked eggs and then she started laying the hen house again, I just think she was the low girl on the totem pole and she would get thrown off the nests in the hen house so she decided to lay in her own spot where she would ot get bothered

 

[truechick]

I've had this problem also. Every time i would find a nest they would go somewhere else. So when I found a nest in the barn I put an plastic egg (filled with sand to make it heavy) in it. Now they keep laying there and I know where to look.

 

[cmom]

Some of my birds share the nest boxes when they lay their eggs. I put golf balls in the nest boxes and they have been laying in them. They do seem to favor certain nest boxes. There are pics on my BYC Page.

 

[Mortimer]

Mine will create a stash every so often as well. If we're short eggs for more than a couple days in a row I start walking the yard, checking all the "cubby-hole" type places and always end up finding them.

I've NEVER found eggs just laying out in the open anywhere, they're always stashed someplace clever. Sometimes just one, sometimes a small clutch. I have found eggs in:

Bucket of the front end loader of the tractor
Our enormous Yucca plant
The yoke of a large elm tree in the back yard
A 4-gallon bucket that was laying on its side behind the barn
The corner of our fence
Seat of the lawn mower in the barn
Shelf underneath the grill
Inside the brush pile (when it's big enough)

Chickens are funny. They use the nestboxes almost all the time, but every once in awhile that "I have to put these somewhere safe!" instinct is just too strong!