Gertrude McCluck, a world-renowned mystery solving chicken was vacationing in Arkansas. Gertrude was staying with her cousin Speckles the rooster on his farm in Brockwell, Arkansas.

Speckles owners supplied their local feed store patrons with brown eggs. Speckles owners realized that their egg production was getting smaller and smaller each day. It got to the point that they were getting only two dozen eggs a day. Speckles blamed himself for the missing eggs; it was his responsibility to alert his owners when something was amiss. When Speckles told Gertrude about the missing eggs, Gertrude assured Speckles that she would help Speckles figure out where the missing eggs were going.

For the first couple of days Gertrude and Speckles watched the hens closely but could find no explanation for the missing eggs. Gertrude concluded that the missing eggs must be disappearing at night when the hens were roosting for the night and Speckles was busy guarding the hens from the predators that lurked at night. Foxes, ‘possums, and chicken hawks were always a threat to the safety of the hens, but Speckles had been told by Smoke the collie that the other dogs in the area had noticed that coyotes were getting closer to the farm. This news put Speckles on the alert.

Because of this Gertrude decided to set up her own guard. There were a couple of long nights involved before Gertrude heard something moving outside the laying house. Gertrude hid in the darkest corner of the hen house and watched in dismay as a three of the ugliest, biggest black snakes she had ever seen slithered their way into the laying house and began eating the delicious brown eggs right out of the nesting boxes.

Gertrude was terrified. She was frozen in fear and suddenly, without much thought, she began to scream as loud as she could, raising the alarm for Speckles to come running into action. Speckles crowed as loud as he could hoping to awaken the farmer to come help him get rid of who or whatever was the intruder.

As Speckles rounded the corner and entered the laying house he saw the egg thieves in all their hideousness. Luckily for Speckles and the farmer the snakes had just eaten several eggs and were fat and lazy and were not as alarmed as they would have been had they not just eaten. The farmer came out to the laying house and disposed of the black snakes that had been stealing his eggs.

The next day it was time for Gertrude to go home. Speckles had asked her stay on the farm but Gertrude was not ready to give up her love for solving a good mystery. She promised to come back and visit Speckles soon. Secretly, Gertrude had grown attached to the other chickens on the farm. When retirement came, Brockwell would be her new home.