Something ate my eggs!

[Donlan73]

Well for thr first time, went to collect my 3 eggs and nothing! Seen a piece of shell and that is it. It was in the day light cause my 3 hens lay around 11:00 am and one sometimes lay in the afternoon. No noise from the crew...roo didn't make any warning sounds.
Any idea's?

 

[redsoxs]

If there was only a little piece of egg shell left, it may well have been one of the chickens. Chickens will quickly dispose of a broken egg and they love the shells for the calcium. When one figures out that there are good eats inside the lovely little oval and a couple of good hard pecks grant access, you can have a real problem. It can be difficult to break an egg eating chicken of the habit.

 

[hennotrooster]

Well for thr first time, went to collect my 3 eggs and nothing! Seen a piece of shell and that is it. It was in the day light cause my 3 hens lay around 11:00 am and one sometimes lay in the afternoon. No noise from the crew...roo didn't make any warning sounds.
Any idea's?

Squirrels will take eggs, they will take fake eggs, golf balls and I am told they will even take a baby chick. My (not with us any longer roo) never made a sound when the squirrels were in their yard or coop as a matter of fact he would sit with them in the shade

he may have shared the stolen eggs with them for all I know..... there was something wrong with him.

 

[Donlan73]

Hummm...They all 3 lay in the same nest around the same time...one would lay and get and the other would etc...Wife said it was a squirrel, so I loaded and cocked.
Thanks

 

[Donlan73]

One lays a white egg and the other two brown...all I found was brown egg shells.
Thanks...

 

[Donlan73]

Lol...so right on that. I have a few of them hanging around, like there are a couple of nest just above the coop. Haven't lost any since then...
Thanks

 

[Michael Apple]

I saw Blue Jays coming into my coop once after I'd found some egg remnants in the nests. You can use shade cloth over the coop doors and the hens will eventually get used to walking through it. If wild birds are doing that, it may help. Come to think of it, rats will do that too if they are getting in your coop.