Is it a predator or a person?

[HenOnAJuneBug]

How in the world can a magpie or crow steal an egg? They couldn't even get their beak around one to lift it. Even if they could I seriously doubt that they could fly with one.

 

[Zoomie]

Well, even so - I had a ton of fake eggs stolen by magpies. I would find them out in the woods, so I started paying attention and caught several of the thieves in action. LOL. I thought it was hilarious. Netting was my solution too and it worked.

 

[Bunnylady]

How in the world can a magpie or crow steal an egg? They couldn't even get their beak around one to lift it. Even if they could I seriously doubt that they could fly with one.

Oh, they can, believe me. At one time, I had some free-ranging hens that were laying their eggs in a corner of a horse's stall. A crow learned that eggs could be found in that spot, and it checked repeatedly throughout the day to see if any eggs were there. I checked, too; some days I got the eggs, some days the crow did. Several times I saw the crow fly off with an egg in its beak, many more times, the crow scolded at me as I worked in the area (they are very smart birds, and it knew I was keeping an eye on it, too!). A crow can't carry more than one egg at a time, but it may stash that egg nearby and come back for another, thus hauling off a number of eggs in a fairly short period of time.

 

[kwhites634]

Quit guessing; install a trail cam

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

I'm really surprised. Would never have imagined -

Crow stealing an egg -

 

[stormrobin]

Do neighbors live near you? What a deal - free eggs. And, no, a thief would not necessarily take all eggs. Even if they did, your hens might have laid some afterwards.

My neighbors aren't too close out in the country. But I mean they are within walking distance.

 

[stormrobin]

Quit guessing; install a trail cam

That may be exactly what I do be in their run I have a huge pine tree and netting the top would be a pain in the butt. But I may have to do it. I do have quite a lot of magpies. And a couple crows. It I've never seen them in the coop. But I'm not watching 24/7.

 

[EveCh]

A large black snake will take lots of eggs at one time from multiple nests. Inspect everything closely as often he won't go terrible far to hang out and digest. Snakes will take golf balls and fake eggs too.

 

[stormrobin]

A large black snake will take lots of eggs at one time from multiple nests. Inspect everything closely as often he won't go terrible far to hang out and digest. Snakes will take golf balls and fake eggs too.

I know in Idaho we don't have a huge variety of snakes, garder snakes rattlesnakes and bull and gopher snakes. Haven't seen anything more than a garder snake. But that's not to say they aren't around. But my eggs were missing every evening since. I've tried gathering earlier too but no luck. I've been getting one or two or none from 17 hens. I have four more that should start soon too. Today I've collected twice already and I have gotten seven. I've got some traps and a game can and I'm going to put meeting over the run this weekend when I can get some help. Hoping that helps. I looked nearby and didn't find any snakes either.

 

[Maeser]

One afternoon this summer I watched a magpie fly off with an egg in its beak, only to return within minutes for another one. I checked for a nest and found a large nest of guinea eggs near an outside corner of the coop. There were 17 eggs left and they were gone by morning. At the time I had plenty of guineas, so I wasnt interested in saving the eggs.

We had a poor egg laying rate in the chicken coop for several weeks. I finally bought a game cam and set it up in the coop and captured pic after pic of magpies in the coop. We closed up the large coop with the chickens in it. It took some time for the chickens to get back to laying like they should, but they finally are laying well. Until this happened, i hadn't realized that the presence of magpies in the coop could affect the chickens' laying rate.