Hiding Eggs...Help

Last Sunday I got back from vacation, had a good time, and all my birds were fine. The people looking after them said they were averaging 3 eggs a day from my four pullets. This seemed reasonable so I didn't think anything of it. On Monday I found out that one of my EEs had hidden her eggs, I found her laying a new egg on a huge pile of eggs in the greenhouse/shed. When she was finished I pulled out 15 eggs, almost one for each day we were gone. Yummy dinner!

The problem, I haven't found any eggs since Monday. She isn't broody, but has changed her laying place several times since she started laying. Yesterday, I shut everyone up in the run in an attempt to get her to lay where I could find the eggs; but when we came back home she was the only one out, over the 5 1/2 ft fence. They usually have the whole backyard, and she thought she was in chicken jail. She is an evil crafty devil, and I need some advice on where to look for her eggs. We've quartered the entire yard several times and haven't found any. Could she have suddenly stopped laying? Would she leave the yard to lay eggs? Our back fence is only 3 ft, but no one has ever gone over it. How high would she go to find a secure place? Each place she has chosen to lay has been low. The last place was about 10 inches square, on pea gravel, under a couple of sawhorses. She has only used the nest box once or twice, all the other birds use them

This is driving me nuts. I can't stand being outsmarted by a bird!

Karen

 

I've gotten an egg from Eggo, the sneaky nest hider, for several days in a row now. I think there must still be some hidden somewhere or I had an egg theif. I'm very careful not to go near her when she is in her new spot, also in the greenhouse, under a shelf, behind a water can. The other three all lay in one nest box, and I've even seen them on top of one another. Silly birds! But it still bugs me that she can hide a nest where I can't find it. The danged lot isn't even a quarter acre.