Missing eggs?????????????????.............

[geneinmurphy]

A week ago I did a nest check and one of the Troyer horizontal gourds on my T14 had 6 eggs in it. Yesterday, when I did another nest check, there were NO eggs (or even broken eggs) in the gourd. This is very puzzling.....I never have problems with snakes.....what could have happened here????

[cary-nw-fla]

This is my first year to have PMs in residence. I didn't think I would have a snake problem either. I had one gourd that had an 8 egg clutch in it. (I had netting up, but unfortunately not enough). I made a nest check and like you, eggs were gone, no shells in the gourd or on the ground. When I opened the next gourd.. there it was a corn snake about 3 ft long. Needless to say, I added more netting to my poles and about 2 weeks later caught a rat snake before he got up the pole. Next year I plan to have an electric fence charger system in place. Lesson learned. I sure did hate to loose that 8 egg clutch, I understand they are not common.

[katkola]

Last year an English Sparrow destroyed the eggs in one of my gourds! Do you see male English Sparrow around your gourds. If so, please get rid of them!

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

That sounds like a snake to me. Do you have snake guards? What kind of pole guards do you have?

[TammyBears]

I too have an SY pair that had 6 eggs in my Trio castle with enlarged compartments. Now I have only 3 eggs. My nest checks are about every 3 days. I do have guards and snake netting. There are no sparrows, and if there was a snake, it would have been caught and/or surely would have taken all of them anyway. There are no broken shells in nest or on ground. I have had many bachelor subbies around lately. One even took over a gourd that just recently fledged 5 beautiful babies. As soon as parents and fledglings were gone, he moved right in. But where are the eggs?

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

Tammy, in your case, it most likely was a subbie male that destroyed some eggs, because a snake would not let 3 eggs stay in the nest.