Egg killer

[maryellen21]

And it's not the skunk, that hasn't been back since the bf got rid of it. Put up cameras and last night saw a rat running around the pen. Its body heat didnt set off the recorder luckily i was doing dishes and happened to look at monitor in window and saw the rat running around. Rat traps have been set. Food is taken up at night and metal container is used. I watched rat run out of pen and under shed so they are living under shed.

 

[aart]

So it's not a MF....it's an RB.... BatRastard! lol Good Luck!

ETA: Oops, wrong thread......its still an RB.

 

[GardenDmpls]

Still doesn't explain the appearance of the egg you found. Sometimes a chicken will lay an egg with thin, minimal or no shell. This can be from a calcium problem or the egg moving too quickly through its system. Do your hens get enough calcium?

 

[maryellen21]

I only had those 2 soft eggs on the pen floor in the beginning. I have oyster shells in a separate feeder and mixed with their food too to make sure they get enough calcium. Eggs have been perfect since then

 

[Bob1313]

On another thread at this site, I have read that adding oyster shell to their food is a bad idea. Do not remember why. Just make sure that it is always available to them. They will eat as much as they need.

 

[JNDPLUS3]

Most probably a snake - rat snakes are great egg eaters check your local garden center for some moth balls and put on outside of cage/pen areas- the napthalene (Sp) vapors will drive all snakes away. Also sounds strange but a real hemp rope laid across the ground - snakes will not cross - I swear it works - just ask any REAL cowboy!

 

[maryellen21]

Nope it's a rat we saw it on the surveillance camera- not a snake

 

[7 Biddies]

Depending on the species and how soft the dirt or blockage is, some snakes will manage, but generally they just use holes rodents have dug.



lol, good luck with trying to stop rodents getting in... It's often completely futile. You're generally better off trying to remove the food sources before night time, they can be quite the acrobats.

I had one rat leap a meter off the top perch in an aviary to do some kind of high speed shimmy between the vertical sheetmetal of the back of the cage, and the horizontal sheetmetal of the roof. She'd do that regularly since she couldn't get in anywhere around floor level nor two meters above floor level, and it was all pointless, she had easy access to other cages containing the very same food, but just seemed to like terrorizing any chooks I tried to put in that cage. I'd blocked those holes repeatedly, with a variety of things including metal aviary mesh, rocks, bricks, wood, etc, and she just kept dragging them out of there. They're amazingly strong for their size.

Best wishes with your rodent/snake/whatever issue.

I have the entire bottom and sides of my coop covered in 1/2 inch hardware cloth ... this includes the bottom of the wood floor of the hen house. I had a rat digging tunnels under the hardware cloth in the run (looked like an ant farm) to get to the feed that fell through but, so far, nothing has gotten in when it's all closed up at night. My cats finally did their job and killed the rat.

 

[chooks4life]

I have the entire bottom and sides of my coop covered in 1/2 inch hardware cloth ... this includes the bottom of the wood floor of the hen house. I had a rat digging tunnels under the hardware cloth in the run (looked like an ant farm) to get to the feed that fell through but, so far, nothing has gotten in when it's all closed up at night. My cats finally did their job and killed the rat.

Good on them! The one time I tried to use my cat in the coop overnight she almost became python food. :/

 

[maryellen21]

Peanut butter = caught rat. Rat has been disposed of. Trap set tonight for next round