dragonbird
Chirping
- Sep 4, 2015
- 99
- 41
- 76
Our five girls had started producing their normal 3-5 eggs a day after their winter break of about 1-3 eggs a day...Until about two weeks ago.
I started getting 0-2 eggs a day. I am a coop stalker. I am addicted to my chickens and admit that I go out there far more than I need to . I also have 12 babies in a separation area in the coop that I cannot seem to get enough of, so needless to say I am out there a LOT and collect the eggs very frequently.
I also did notice that the girls looked like they had been slowly digging around the perimeter of their run enclosure which had the chicken wire buried about 4 inches deep-it was on our to do list to get that all fixed up but we were waiting for a day that wasn't a torrential downpour.
My first thought was a snake-as the eggs were just gone. No evidence and all my girls were OK-and, after all, aren't raccoons mostly nocturnal?
But my sweet daughter decided neighbors were stealing eggs, so she put a bunch of fishing line in random places so she could see if people were walking through (ya ya, animals could do it too-but I couldn't get her to move on from that idea haha)..Today we went out and checked her 'traps' and I found a bit of raccoon (I think) scat (normal around here) but I also found an eggshell with the innards missing.
I stacked logs up around the wire until hubby and I can get to the burying of the wire better (not the best solution but I am an idiot and I was completely in panic mode).
I holed myself out in the coop for two hours while my girls were laying, just to see if anyone would come. The only thing that I saw was a really inquisitive crow that seemed to be great friends with my girls. So now I am wondering if a crow is capable of grabbing an egg and running off with it?
I have no idea what I am up against. I've only hunted moles before (and am quite good at it-I catch them alive with a shovel) and am up for the challenge I just need to know my enemy.
Wow, this got REALLY long-sorry for that. I'm just really hoping someone has some brilliant ideas of what would steal eggs in the daytime....The little area that was a bit unsecured really didn't seem big enough for a raccoon-it was only a small gap-like an inch...but with some pushing and shoving maybe had give to about three inches.
Thanks in advance!
I started getting 0-2 eggs a day. I am a coop stalker. I am addicted to my chickens and admit that I go out there far more than I need to . I also have 12 babies in a separation area in the coop that I cannot seem to get enough of, so needless to say I am out there a LOT and collect the eggs very frequently.
I also did notice that the girls looked like they had been slowly digging around the perimeter of their run enclosure which had the chicken wire buried about 4 inches deep-it was on our to do list to get that all fixed up but we were waiting for a day that wasn't a torrential downpour.
My first thought was a snake-as the eggs were just gone. No evidence and all my girls were OK-and, after all, aren't raccoons mostly nocturnal?
But my sweet daughter decided neighbors were stealing eggs, so she put a bunch of fishing line in random places so she could see if people were walking through (ya ya, animals could do it too-but I couldn't get her to move on from that idea haha)..Today we went out and checked her 'traps' and I found a bit of raccoon (I think) scat (normal around here) but I also found an eggshell with the innards missing.
I stacked logs up around the wire until hubby and I can get to the burying of the wire better (not the best solution but I am an idiot and I was completely in panic mode).
I holed myself out in the coop for two hours while my girls were laying, just to see if anyone would come. The only thing that I saw was a really inquisitive crow that seemed to be great friends with my girls. So now I am wondering if a crow is capable of grabbing an egg and running off with it?
I have no idea what I am up against. I've only hunted moles before (and am quite good at it-I catch them alive with a shovel) and am up for the challenge I just need to know my enemy.
Wow, this got REALLY long-sorry for that. I'm just really hoping someone has some brilliant ideas of what would steal eggs in the daytime....The little area that was a bit unsecured really didn't seem big enough for a raccoon-it was only a small gap-like an inch...but with some pushing and shoving maybe had give to about three inches.
Thanks in advance!
