Blue Jay Eating the Eggs

[HighNDryFarm]

I thought one of the chickens was pecking the eggs and then it kind of stopped because I started collecting the eggs more often but then I started finding holes again. Also, the girls started laying in the barn instead of the coop and very adamant about it too. I kept chasing them out and they'd run around the back and go back in. So I go out to check on my 6 week old Polish who I let in the run area and I find an egg laying in the run with a hole in it and then I hear this flapping and a blue jay was stuck in the covered part and I realized it was him!!! I never thought it was a blue jay????? Anyone else have this problem?

Looked like he had poked the hole in the egg and was attempting to fly with it when I came in. My old girl was in there and she looked ticked!!! I can't lock the run or the girls that do lay in there can't get in but I'm thinking I need to let them lay in the barn until the blue jay moves on but then I'd have to lock them in the run for a week to get them back laying in the coop.......and they do NOT like not being able to free range!

 

[havurah]

I see that this is an old thread, but wondering if you came up with a solution and what it was. I too thought that my chickens were eating their eggs until I walked in on a blue bird in the nesting box. What to do?

 

[loneskywolf]

Blue-jays tend to be very opportunistic about food, and yes they will eat any egg even wild birds eggs. Since I have cats blue-jays are not a problem
, but you might have to fill a bird feeder and move it away from the nesting area and enclose the nest area with fencing to keep them out.

 

[macsmith]

I just saw your post and wanted to let you know that this recently happened to us as well! We were finding eggs that had been pecked but not eaten. I was so upset because of all the stories out there about hens eating their own eggs. Well, a week or so after this started, I found a blue jay in the chicken run. It flew out as soon as I spotted it and I never really gave it much thought (but I kind of wondered if maybe the blue jay was the culprit). The egg pecking continued so I got fake eggs from the feed store and this seemed to help a little but I would still find an occasional pecked egg. I was so mad! And then, about two weeks ago, my husband was out watering the garden when our six-year old Golden Retriever went running past him with a blue jay in her mouth! She spit it out and it hopped away into the berry bushes which are very dense. We never could tell if the jay survived or not, but Golden Retrievers have such soft mouths that it might have survived. Well, I found blue feathers near the chicken run and what do you think? Not one pecked egg since our Golden Retriever caught the jay! We now know that Abby is out there doing her job - not only protecting our hens, but protecting the eggs as well!

 

[RPousman]

We've been having the same bluejay problem. I hear they will "kill" eggs that they feel might be threatening a near by nest of the theirs. I bought a pellet gun and put the hit on them. I was told to leave a dead one or two in the coop. My girls don't mind them but the message to other bluejays has been sent.

 

[rodgero]

I have not found the best solution but a pellet gun is helping. But, the Blue Jays must have put out the word and new Scrub Jays are coming to feast on the eggs. I think that the Blue Jays hear the chickens and can recognize the squawking pattern that means there is a fresh egg ready for pecking and then they go in the nesting boxes and the raid is on.....

 

[gflu]

I had a similar problem identifying who was pecking the eggs. I was sure it was one of the Hens, but couldn't figure out who. So I set up a video camera on Super Long Play and caught the culprit, a willey Blue Jay with a taste for yoke. The Jay has been banished with a little better covering on the coop.
There is an interesting machine learning application running on this guys chicken coop in Portland that will use artificial intelligence to identify birds in coop.
Check out Tensor Chicken https://twitter.com/TensorChicken