New member

[Gailar]

Hi everyone, I am new to this group and 8 months into raising our flock. We currently have 10 chickens, 4 that have been laying since March and the 6 little girls that just started laying 2 wks ago. We are currently getting 8 eggs a day , which I assume is pretty good. The thing is they want to lay in the same laying box. There are five boxes and 2 coops. They literally wait in a line at the coop door and as soon as one is done another one jumps on the nest. Also I have one that lays in the dirt, so we call that one a dirt egg. Well yesterday and today I noticed that one made a nest in the back of the coop, so today I left the egg in there to encourage the others to lay there as well, but when I went back out there an hr later to check, the egg was gone. I found five eggs in the nesting box and one dirt egg . I looked for a snake but couldn't find one. Does anyone have any idea what might of happen to it ? I'm at a loss, there was no trace of it anywhere.

 

[drumstick diva]

Could be snake or some other thief OR the hen might have moved her egg to another place she feels is safer. Hens sometimes hold an egg between beak and their upper chest and move them around that way. They can also lock it in between wing and body. They are pretty clever.
Your hen may be attempting to go broody(wants to hatch and raise chicks), and they like to hide a nest to help keep it safe.

If any had broken the egg(to eat it) you would find some shell or goop in the area, or yolk etc. on the culprit's beak.

 

[Chickensfan]

 

[Pork Pie]

Hi and welcome to BYC - glad that you have joined us.

Best wishes
Ct

 

[QueenMisha]

Welcome to BYC! It's great to have you.

 

[Gailar]

Thank you guys, it's nice to be here. I'm putting a game cam in the coop this weekend and then maybe we will be able to see what's going on.

 

[BantamFan4Life]

Welcome to BYC! I'm glad you joined us!

 

[Chickensfan]

welcome again!

 

[Gailar]

Hi everyone, just a quick update. We figured it out. You were right drumstick diva, they moved the egg. Yesterday we marked the egg with a marker and sure enough, one of them moved it into the nest. They are clever little girls. Thank you so much for you input.