What could have taken ALL the eggs?

[LALADY1101]

We have free range rouens. One of the hens has been on a nest for a few weeks now. I would guess that we would have had babies within the next week or so, maybe sooner. Some time during the night, all of the eggs disappeared. No shells or anything. I'm not exactly sure how many eggs there were. I think somewhere around 10, she kicked 2 out last week. What could have taken that many eggs overnight without a trace?

 

[Senna95]

Dog, raccoon, possums, coyotes, or small group of some sort of weasels (mink.... or other).
My best guess though, would be raccoon. They may have young to feed, and be very hungry.

 

[CityChicker]

Don't forget skunk or snake.

 

[chickensducks&agoose]

my dog ate 2 mallard nests... we don't have a male, so the eggs were pretty rotten I think. The dog ended up being really ill... but there were no shells left behind, or other clues... just missing eggs, then super-sick dog...

 

[afeatherfan]

I caught a possum eating my guineas nest in the day time . I killed it.

 

[darkstarr nite]

I have a female dog that loves to eat eggs and will help herself if she has the chance... but raccoons love eggs..

 

[Wifezilla]

Stupid question...but if you have a female on a nest, why didn't you put some kind of enclosure around her?

 

[LALADY1101]

Quote:
she was next door at the neighbor's oxidation pond that has a fence around it. However the nest was obviously still accesible to predators. We had a female laying last year that we built an enclosure for and something still got her eggs. We had another hen laying at the same time, so hubby built a box and we went and got her nest and eggs to try to prevent it from happening to her too and she abandoned her nest. I ended up incubating and hatching those eggs.It's nerve wracking having free ranging ducks on nests, but I really don't know what to do other than go take the eggs every time I see a hen on a nest. It seems that predators leave the nests alone until about a week before hatch time.

 

[LALADY1101]

Quote:
snake was my 1st thought, but that many eggs at one time?? My sons were playing baseball with some other kids from the neighborhood on Monday. One of the boys hit the ball over a fence and my 14 yr old went to get it. He stepped on a water mocassin!!!!!!! Thank God it didn't bite him! Hubby said if it had been in summer when they're more alert, it probably would have. TERRIFYING THOUGHT!

 

[duckluck]

Quote:
My bet would be that you have a two-legged predator that took them home for the frying pan or the incubator. All the other predators mentioned likely would have left some trace, except the snakes, and what snake is going to eat *all* those eggs?