Magpies stealing and breaking eggs

[animalfarmer]

Hi I live in Cyprus, have had chickens for 6 years and magpies are everywhere here (otherwise known to my husband as shite hawks!). Have never had this problem before but last 2 weeks 2-3 eggs per day (we only get 6 max we have a small flock) have been broken. Suspected a chicken and isolated a few initially, but resorted to leaving them in the smaller coop last 2 days and the breakages have stopped. We see the magpies flying into the outer (open) pen daily, but they've been flying into the smaller(enclosed) pen and THEN into the nesting coop and stealing the eggs or leaving them broken.

have tried cd's on string, shiny ribbon hanging down in entrance to inner coop but they are clever and persistant! Short of leaving the chooks in the smaller pen all morning till they've laid, I don't know what to do next. Any ideas? In Cyprus the locals would just shoot them (illegal but this is Cyprus!), but we don't have a gun....inhumane anyway

 

[Henriettamom919]

What about an owl decoy at each point of entry? Move it around a bit every few days so it seems "alive"?

I also found this, not sure how true it is...

Use “eyes” to scare magpies
One Australian rumor states that magpies are afraid of being looked at. In places where magpies have grown incredibly used to people, they have been known to attack children’s backpacks. Supposedly, putting large eyes on the back of the backpacks keeps the Magpies at bay.

This idea could be applied elsewhere. Mount painted eyes on tree trunks, your shed, or other places you want to keep magpies away. They may be afraid of the eyes, not because they don’t like being looked at, but because large eyes may trigger an instinctive response. Large eyes often belong to large predators.

 

[animalfarmer]

Hi thanks so much will try these. Thinking of a big scarecrow with HUGE eyes will update here if we get a result

 

[aart]

Try a pet strips door on your coop pop door.