We started over with chicks this year, so all of our chickens are young and just started to lay late this summer.  At our peak, we had about 16 hens and 2 roosters this year, and while all of them should have been laying, our peak egg production was a whopping two eggs per day.  Fed up with the food bill, not to mention the fact that we are paying over $5 per dozen for eggs at the store, we sold six of our hens a few weeks ago, but are still scratching our heads over the ridiculous amount of eggs we are getting for so many chickens.

This mystery has been plaguing us all season long.  We have nest boxes laid out in several places, and have scoured the chicken pen to look for hidden nests.  Still, we have only been getting 2-3 eggs every day.  With our current 10 hens, we should be getting at least 7-8 on most days.  Some of the eggs had holes in them, so we started to suspect one of the hens might have been eating eggs.

Then, the other night, my husband went out after dark to feed.  Usually we are out there in the daylight, but we were late this day.  Just a few minutes later, he came rushing back in the house.  While reaching in for the eggs, he heard a rustling near the nest boxes.  He pulled his hand out and looked inside, where he saw the little button nose of a skunk.

So all this time, we have been getting eggs, but we were too slow to collect them!  That little skunk had found himself quite the daily feast.  After many months of head-scratching, the mystery of the eggless chickens has now been solved, and thankfully, no people were sprayed in the telling of this tale.