Incubators Anonymous

[jandrusrn]

ok anyone have a suggestion how to cure an egg stealing dog? he snagged one of the eggs from my broody when she went to eat today. it was due to hatch tomorrow but i ended up having to put it down because there was too little shell left and the yolk was damaged.

and killing the dog isn't an option. he means more to me than the chickens but it's still a bad habit.

Waiting for the end to the very interesting saga..... My dog hasn't done it yet... YET. But if any feathered thing gets at him with a beak... he runs for the hills. (and we live in the city, so that's a long run)

 

[ki4got]

Waiting for the end to the very interesting saga..... My dog hasn't done it yet... YET. But if any feathered thing gets at him with a beak... he runs for the hills. (and we live in the city, so that's a long run)

well i don't know if there WILL be an end... in the short term, i hooked a screen over the doorway, raised up enough that the chickens can come and go but the dog can't. and in the morning they can fly over it to get out. nobody walks out, they jump off the roost and fly. some landings are more graceful than others. LOL

 

[newchickinflock]

How old the roo's have to be before you butcher them?

 

[HOBBIE]

depends on breed

 

[Arielle]

ok anyone have a suggestion how to cure an egg stealing dog? he snagged one of the eggs from my broody when she went to eat today. it was due to hatch tomorrow but i ended up having to put it down because there was too little shell left and the yolk was damaged.

and killing the dog isn't an option. he means more to me than the chickens but it's still a bad habit.

Love my dogs too. I can call my dogs off ( obedience trained) but how they behave when I am not there is another thing. I don't have this problem but dogs are forages and I'm sure coyotes make a meal of tasty turkey eggs ; but I did think up a possible solution.


Try setting the dog up for a bad experience. Set up several specially prepared eggs where the dog can get them. Inject a good tablespoon hotsauce inside the eggs. See how many the dog eats. If the dog quits and this seems to work, sprinkle a few drops in the nest around the eggs. This will remind the dog as he is sniffing around, of the aweful experience he had eating eggs.

Learning can be thru one very bad horrible experience, or a series of repetative training efforts.

I don't eat raspberries with cream anymore! I ate two bowls and spent the next 24 hrs throwing up. THat was 25 years ago! One bad experience . . . .

 

[flitter]

ok well that's one suggestion but i have coops and stuff all over the place, with free ranging chickens and dogs... i don't think that's really a practical one for me.

if i could find something to put IN or ON an egg to make it taste disagreeable that might work better to break the habit... it's a recent one, as of about 3 days ago. and i can't catch him in the act of actually stealing the eggs, only when he's sitting there with the egg in his mouth. so far he hasn't broken any eggs except the hatching one.

i wouldn't mind if he would bring me the eggs he finds out in the woods/yard. guess i'm just going to have to put a door on the coops he can't get into

I don't know if this would work on chickens and you wouldn't want to eat the eggs after but it might teach him a lesson. There is stuff called McNasty that we spray on our wood fence to keep the horses from chewing on it. It doesn't hurt them but taste horrid... from their facial expressions. Also how about red pepper/ Again for reteaching and toss the eggs.

 

[ki4got]

Quote:

Love my dogs too. I can call my dogs off ( obedience trained) but how they behave when I am not there is another thing. I don't have this problem but dogs are forages and I'm sure coyotes make a meal of tasty turkey eggs ; but I did think up a possible solution.

Try setting the dog up for a bad experience. Set up several specially prepared eggs where the dog can get them. Inject a good tablespoon hotsauce inside the eggs. See how many the dog eats. If the dog quits and this seems to work, sprinkle a few drops in the nest around the eggs. This will remind the dog as he is sniffing around, of the aweful experience he had eating eggs.

Learning can be thru one very bad horrible experience, or a series of repetative training efforts.

I don't eat raspberries with cream anymore! I ate two bowls and spent the next 24 hrs throwing up. THat was 25 years ago! One bad experience . . . .

thanks. mine are also obedience trained, and he will leave things alone for a time, but the duration isn't greater than maybe an hour... then i have to repeat the command when i catch him again.

on the broody's remaining eggs, 3 hatched and the last pipped, but one chick managed to get stuck thru the mesh of the milk crate and the other apparently made it thru and got burried in the sawdust. one was under her. i did find them all, and took them back inside to the incubator. the one in the sawdust was barely moving, the stuck one was also very cold but warmer than the first. bra-bators work well in a pinch. hubby made several comments that i won't repeat. LOL but for now she's just got some wooden eggs again, until i decide if i will give her chicks. i might try transplanting her to a brooder box for now, and see if she'll accept her 4 back and however many barred rocks hatch - so far 6/12 are out, with 3 more pips. 11 went into lockdown. best hatch i've had from shipped eggs yet!

 

[ki4got]

oh and for now i've installed a 'dog filter' on the coop door... think i posted about it already. a wire screen with wood frame. about 12" off the floor, 12" tall. he won't jump over it because he'd land on a milk crate (step stool for a frizzle chick). did it once and busted his butt. so i think i've got the problem solved short term.

 

[DMRippy]

Took the chicks away from the broodies today

Now I have 3 more

I think I am going to start using the broodies to hatch the Ameraucana eggs... I am just not having much luck in the incubator. Out of 10 eggs I got one to hatch. Out of another batch... I got 6 out of 14 maybe.... not great to me. It is just a pattern I am seeing the Ameraucana eggs.

Anyone else have this problem? Or suggestions?

 

[ki4got]

well, i've relocated ducky to a brooder box and am integrating babies to her now. any idea how many babies a hen can handle? ducky's a silver duckwing oegb...

think 8 barred rocks and 4 asst bantams are too many?