Missing Eggs!

[Inga73]

I am worried there may be an egg thief in our midst. My chickens are out free ranging all day, with a couple of roosters as well as my 6 Muscovy ducks. My two Shepherds are out intermittently keeping an eye on things, and I check on the birds quite often. I've never seen any type of predator in the area. I saw one egg in the nesting box early in the day, and when I went back to collect eggs, it was gone. No signs of a struggle, no damage done to any chickens. Also no evidence that a chicken ate the egg. It just disappeared! Any idea what it could be? I live in Ontario, Canada so we have quite a bit of snow and chilly temperatures. There are squirrels, raccoons, foxes, and all your other typical woodland creatures around, though I have never seen any near the house with my big dogs around.

Let me know if you have experienced this and what you think about who dunnit!

Cheers!

 

[sourland]

Any chance your dogs are eating the eggs?

 

[Inga73]

Any chance your dogs are eating the eggs?

I thought about that as soon as I typed the post out. I don't think so, they have been pretty well trained to stay away from the birds and not bug them too much. Always a possibility though! I think I will set up my game camera and see what shows up

 

[MissE]

First guess would be a chicken knocked it out of the next, and they all devoured the mess. A broken egg will last .2 seconds in my coop, but they don't peck at the intact ones.

Second guess would be the dogs. I also have GSDs. Mine are not allowed anywhere near the birds, but if they were to find an egg, there would be no evidence.

 

[cmom]

Set up a camera if you have one and you may discover who or what is the egg thief. I love my cameras. Good luck...