I believe something has been getting into my coop and stealing/eating eggs. Last week I noticed that the girls seemed to be laying less than usual, but didn't really think anything of it. I had three ameraucana eggs under a broody. Thursday I marked each egg with an x so that my stepdaughter knew which eggs to leave under her when she collected eggs for us this weekend, as we were out of town. She texted me Saturday and said that there were only two eggs with an x on them under the hen. I thought maybe she just didn't see the other, or had collected it unknowingly. When I got home I checked, and there weren't any blue collected eggs with the x, and only two in the nest box. I searched the coop and the other boxes and the missing egg is nowhere to be found. There weren't any shells or any sign of eggs being eaten. My coop is raised, with an attached run, 1/4" hardware cloth around the entire thing (under the coop and around the run), all windows and vents have the same hardware cloth covering and the run has a roof. Also, the hardware cloth lays on the ground about 2 feet out, around the entire coop. What could possibly have happened to that darned egg?!?!?
A snake was my first thought, but I'm not really sure where it would have gotten in at. How large would a snake have to be to be able to eat an egg?
