Eggs vanishing with no trace. Need ideas.

[Fishkeeper]

Huh, that's strange. Any signs of an allergic reaction? Or was she especially stressed, struggling a lot, and maybe burst an aneurysm?

 

[HH.Wench]

Huh, that's strange. Any signs of an allergic reaction? Or was she especially stressed, struggling a lot, and maybe burst an aneurysm?

No idea. No real struggle other than catching them in the coop. She became lethargic, could barely stand when I went to put her in that night. Never recovered over 4 days of hand feeding.

 

[Fishkeeper]

Yeah, my best guess is she had an allergic reaction. Doesn't mean the dip was inherently harmful- anything with an immune system can be allergic to anything that system can detect, including sunlight and water. Yes, there are people who have a sunlight or water skin allergy. It's also possible to be allergic to water internally (instead of just a skin allergy), or to oxygen, but creatures with those allergies don't tend to live long. If they're born at all.
Sorry for your loss, and you may want to be careful if you happen to have any descendents of hers- it's possible they're also allergic.

Or, sudden thought- is it possible she was injured, and the dip got into her bloodstream? That seems like a potentially very bad thing to have happen.

 

[ChenaultHens]

I had this happen. I had 10 chickens at the time and was only getting 3-4 eggs a day which left me quite dumbfounded since all of my hens are excellent layers. Anyways, the culprit was a black snake. They don’t leave any traces since they swallow the thing whole. Raccoons and possum are pretty messy and leave yolk and egg shells over everything.

 

[aart]

They stopped laying all winter 2018 (sub tropical climate), laid a few in the spring including tiny eggs and jelly eggs, then stopped all summer long. As far as I know she didnt aspirate and her head was above the whole time. She just went down and never recovered after the dip - the rest had zero reaction with exact same dip.

No idea. No real struggle other than catching them in the coop. She became lethargic, could barely stand when I went to put her in that night. Never recovered over 4 days of hand feeding.

I would guess that she was on her way out and the stress of bathing pushed her over the edge....nothing to do with the permethrin itself.

 

[Pratsals]

I don't think a live trap would work for a snake, not least because the snake would probably not go all the way into the trap. I'd get a game camera. A snake would probably spit up the shell anyway, so you'd see that.

Are you sure a hen didn't just tuck the eggs away somewhere in a nest?

I am having the same problem. Disappearing eggs with absolutely no trace of shell or anything. Sometimes 6 eggs in one night even turkey eggs.