Missing SO MANY eggs!

[HenOnAJuneBug]

I'm definitely on the snake train as far as culprits... but there's literally NO WHERE it can hide from me in the broody pen where I wouldnt see it. I'm not sure how it'd get through the small hexagon wire with a belly full of eggs, either! So interesting...

Don't forget to look up. They can climb really well.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Man can they climb!

Another thought. If you get a fairly small mesh minnow trap that your chickens are too big to get inside of, you can maybe bait it with an egg and try to trap a snake that way. It's not unusual to find a water snake trapped inside a minnow trap but it does need to be a fairly small mesh wire.

 

[cupofJoelene]

Don't forget to look up. They can climb really well.

Man can they climb!

Another thought. If you get a fairly small mesh minnow trap that your chickens are too big to get inside of, you can maybe bait it with an egg and try to trap a snake that way. It's not unusual to find a water snake trapped inside a minnow trap but it does need to be a fairly small mesh wire.

I just quadruple checked the whole pen, but it's only about 4 ft tall so nothing too far up that I wouldn't bump into if it were up there. Man, that'd be the death of me! Lol. My uncle is lending me his security cam tomorrow, so I'll see what I can catch on cam!

 

[cupofJoelene]

In other news, saw a few fuzzy faces under one of the mommas when I was out there.

 

[NorthTexasWink]

I'm going to say your egg thief is either two-legged or no-legged. Had a hobo stealing eggs and the occasional rabbit once. I bet I spent $500 reinforcing coops and hutches before we caught him. That was 25 years ago, when $500 was a lot of money.

 

[Gavinthesheep735]

Any updates

 

[cupofJoelene]

Any updates

Well, the camera won't work with the layout of the pen without going off anytime the broodys moved... so I added more inches of dirt around the inside perimeter to see if there was anyway that would make a difference. Haven't lost any of the 7 hatched chicks or any of the remaining 5 eggs under the second hen! Sooo, good news. But just as confused, lol.

 

[cupofJoelene]

I'm going to say your egg thief is either two-legged or no-legged. Had a hobo stealing eggs and the occasional rabbit once. I bet I spent $500 reinforcing coops and hutches before we caught him. That was 25 years ago, when $500 was a lot of money.

Shoot. $500 is a lot of money for me today!

 

[Dawnclucks22]

It might not be a predator. Are you sure all your hens are laying at the moment? There are plenty of helpful articles on this site about finding out how hens may not be laying. If they are free-ranged, search your yard. My girls love to set up secret nests. Look in unlikely places. Wherever they feel safe, they will lay. Are you there to see all the eggs and then check later and they're missing?

 

[NorthTexasWink]

Arin, the first posts says the number of eggs each hen was setting on.