Well its a fenced off area that ended up donating three of my gardens to their cause (though the corn they leave alone...but ate all my nitrogen inducing beans growing beneath them)....but there's not that many places to hide. I'll do a thorough inspection tonight.bobhenstra wrote:Sounds like you've got two Black Astrolorps, two Rhode Island Reds and two Buff Orphingtons, all brown egg layers. Since you allow the chickens to roam the yard, hens have a habit of finding secret hiding places to lay their eggs, have you searched your yard for secret hiding places? If you find the place, be sure and test any eggs you find by floating them in cold water, if they float they're bad.
Also, do you have a dog, dogs will sometimes eat eggs as will other animals. You may be feeding some sneaky little critter that just can't believe his fantastic luck! Keep the hens locked up for several days, make sure they have plenty of air and food. Just because you have nests in your coop doesn't mean a thing to a chicken. A couple of golf balls in a nest may help. Every time you mow your lawn feed the clippings to your chickens.
Every time a hen lays an egg she lets the world know, lots of noise, learn to listen for that noise. Last hint, some hens eat their own eggs, rare, but it happens, and it'll eat any other eggs that happens to be available. Discover this by keeping hens separate, may not be convenient, but well worth the time and effort. Lock the hens up at night, in the morning let all but one of the hens out. Hens should be laying at 5 months. If they're actually hens, you should have a pile of eggs---somewhere!
Bob
Thank you for the egg floating trick! I'll be sure to use that one!
No dogs...neighbor had dogs trying to jump over & eat through the fence....so I moved them to the other side of the house couple months ago. Had mice and rats coming over from the neighbors to visit my gardens but smashed the rat...dropped a chug of poison on the neighbors side (they'll never know as they haven't mowed the weeds in years - 3 satellite dishes on the roof)....and stopped up the holes (no new sign in weeks). I do have two rabbits now that the chickens like to chase around....but doubt they are into egg eating (though droppings in chicken boxes so the rabbits have been there). I'll try the golf ball trick.
Well they've been very quiet...hardly a peep. Little clucking when show up with bowl of table scraps or feed...but that's about it. Never found any remains, remnant, stains, etc of any eggs....usually have fairly good attention to detail.