Signs of egg eating?

[Pequena Bandada]

I have three egg laying chickens and six teenagers who will lay in the Spring. I usually get three eggs a day, sometimes only two. We went away this weekend and our neighbor was scheduled to care for the chickens. She's done it before and is great. We left Thursday night and got back tonight. Come to find out, our neighbor's father passed away Friday morning and she jumped on a plane to the other side of the country. She completely spaced on the chickens, and forgot to call us. So... the chickens are fine. They had plenty of food and water, but spent four days cooped up rather than in their run.

What worries me is that there were no eggs at all waiting for us. Nor was there any evidence of eggs- no yolk on the nest boxes, no shell bits anywhere. So what do you all think? Did my chickens eat 10ish eggs? Did some other animal get into the coop and eat them (our coop is brand new and pretty well built so I'd be surprised if this is the answer). Or were my chickens so traumatized from being cooped up that they stopped laying for four days?

Help! What do y'all think? And thanks...

 

[TeamChaos]

Wow, I'm glad your ladies are okay and I'm sorry to hear of your neighbor's loss. Ten eggs seems like an awful lot, but I suppose anything is possible. How much light do they get in their coop? Any chance that after the first few eggs they stopped getting the hormonal cue to lay because they were without day light/ length?
Side note- I just discovered a secret hidey hole my hens were using, so I'd advise going over every bit of your coop to be sure they didn't do the same thing. I also had a chicken who was going to roost with a clumpy, dried but looked sticky belly... I discovered the secret hidey hole because that hen slipped in there to roll an egg out an eat it!

 

[Mrs. K]

whenever I have a complete loss of egg production, as in not tapering off, just no eggs, even though I think I have looked, they have made a secret nest. They had days to plot this!

Look under Everything, last week, mine had one under a pile of hay, they had hollowed out a nest. Or a corner.

MrsK

 

[GammaPoppyLilyFlutter]

How dark is the inside of your coop? Sometimes chicken's eggs don't grow as fast inside their bodies in the dark.

 

[menageriemama]

The only sign that tipped me off about my leghorns munching eggs, was yolk flecks dried on their faces and necks. Look at your girls closely and if you see yellow spots, you have your answer.

 

[zazouse]

Sticky nest materials is always a good sign because they tend to eat all the egg once it is broken.