One egg missing....wanna guess?

[gritsar]

Okay, for the past two months I have been keeping track of my daily egg haul. It averages out to 11 eggs a day from 14 hens and then one day a week it drops to between 6 to 8 eggs before it goes right back to 11.
Then last week two hens decided to play at being broody. My egg count dropped for those two days while they spent alot of time on the nests, but they changed their minds.

Since that time I've been missing one egg a day. Three days of ten eggs a day, then a day of 8, then three more eggs of ten eggs. No one is sick, no one is moulting.
I think someone's hiding an egg, but where? Could one of my semi-broodies decided to take her show on the road?

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

Are you sure its not a snake... or an egg eater?

 

[gritsar]

I'm in and out of the coop all day and haven't seen any signs of a snake. We saw a juvenile black snake in the area last spring, but my cat took care of that as she does with most pests.
If someone has suddenly decided to become an egg eater I'd be surprised. No evidence in the nests or on chicken faces.

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

hmmm... rats maybe?

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Again the cat. We're talking former feral who rarely misses the chance to leave me something - rats, squirrels, rabbits, snakes - on my doorstep every night.
She managed to survive 11 days accidently locked in a building without food and water. The only thing in there for her to eat was an extremely large rat that had lived in there for a year or two, before Kitty. We rescued Kitty from the shed and haven't seen the rat since.
I've seen her hunting around the coop at night, but the coop is sealed shut.
I think I'm going to do a better search of my hen's favorite places tomorrow.

 

[KattyKillFish]

i've caught neighbors coming in and stealing eggs from time to time, but you say the coop is locked.

my second guess is actually a question. What breeds do you have?

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
We have two neighbors within a half mile of us and they are both my best egg customers! One buys 6 dozen at a time! And yeah, the coop is locked at night, but to prevent four legged thieves. We also have a bark crazy dog within sight of the coop.
To answer your question, I have LF brahmas. Fourteen hens and one roo.

 

[KattyKillFish]

i read on MPC that brahmas generally lay about 3 a week. how long has this been going on?

 

[basicliving]

I'm with you Gritsar - those sneaky little buggers have found a secret hiding place! Good luck finding those nests. I'm going through something very similar - I went from 14 eggs a day to 4! My husband found a nest in the garage, under an ATV with 15 eggs in it. Things went back to "normal" and then a couple of days with only 5 or 6 eggs in boxes. My husband found a nest under the lean two, behind a riding mower tractor with 7 eggs in it. *sigh* I know those little sneaky girls have another secret hiding place or two, but I can't find them. And when we do find their secret spots, they stop laying there. I'm going to try leaving one egg in each of the secret nests we find and marking them and maybe they'll keep laying there so we can at least know where to go to collect eggs! And when the weather warms I'm going to leave the house windows up and run out there when I hear them singing their little "I laid an egg" song. Maybe I can solve the mystery. They're pretty covert about it though.

Let us know where you find all those eggs!

Penny

 

[KattyKillFish]

we had our mixed-breed hens lay in a communal nest in our backyard for about 2 weeks. we didn't know where all the eggs were going, and we suspected ravens (VERY clever birds. we've caught them IN THE COOP robbing eggs, not bothering the flock at ALL!)

my constantly-inebriated uncle wandered around in the woods possible looking for a place to tinkle. he found a HUGE nest of something like 40 eggs. it was insane!