Michigan

[NovaAman]

I know that here the other day, the eggs were not in the nest boxes... I assumed they were bored and decided to play soccer with them...

 

[Mom 2em All]

Does sound like something's trying to make off with the eggs. Seems like if they were tossed, some would have broken. I don't know about eggs, but we had a trailer mouse that developed a fondness for cocoa, tried to roll the cocoa container down the hall and into his hole... Do the eggs all seem to be going the same direction?
If you have time, you could lock the girls in the coop, and set out an egg that you aren't trying to hatch. Could be that the girls are attacking the intruder, and he has to drop his booty and run. If you put out another egg, without the girls he might just try to retrieve one of his "dropped" eggs and you could see what it is...? Or if you have one, you could put some eggs in a live trap? Gotta catch him before you have chicks running around.

The ones in the coop were all by the pop hole, and one out side of the coop...outside the coop, under the lean-to- is the rabbit hutch, so, really the eggs arent going in the same direction. Except out.
The real mystery is that in four seperate places, I have eggs marked with an X to encourage the girls to lay in those spots. Then when I collect the eggs, I leave the x eggs, take the newly laid eggs. Nothing has ever bothered those eggs. Now, if I was a rat, I would steal those first...which makes me think it isnt a rat...
What about the pigeon? I say he is clueless, but he really wants a chicken to be his wife...he always twirls around and around doing the pigeon mating dance in front of the hens..think he may be harrassing the girls/kicking their eggs out? Now that I have replaced the eggs with big heavy ones, I will see if they get disturbed...

 

[b737drvr]

Quote: Yeah, I cracked the screen on my netbook yesterday. Unfortunately the warranty/accidental damage expired in January. I ordered a replacement screen from Amazon. Hopefully the replacement will go back in as smoothly as the cracked screen came out. I am using the old POS at the moment myself.

Raz - thanks for the clarifications. I had figured out the BO. I never would have gotten BLA. UGGO..short for UGLY...got it. Won't be the last time I am clueless...

Chicken related, I finally got a start on the coop/run today. Man, it was a cold one! I guess he temp wasn't so bad, but the wind was blowing right through me. I know it was in the low 30's when I finished for the day around 5:00. Progress is slow, but I did get a few posts up for the run, and I am using mostly recycled/repurposed materials, so it looks a little rough. Hope the girls won't mind! Will try to get a picture on here if I can get it off the camera!

 

[RaZ]

Isn't a pigeon a winged rat?

Sorry, couldn't resist that one.

 

[Opa]

The ones in the coop were all by the pop hole, and one out side of the coop...outside the coop, under the lean-to- is the rabbit hutch, so, really the eggs arent going in the same direction. Except out.
The real mystery is that in four seperate places, I have eggs marked with an X to encourage the girls to lay in those spots. Then when I collect the eggs, I leave the x eggs, take the newly laid eggs. Nothing has ever bothered those eggs. Now, if I was a rat, I would steal those first...which makes me think it isnt a rat...
What about the pigeon? I say he is clueless, but he really wants a chicken to be his wife...he always twirls around and around doing the pigeon mating dance in front of the hens..think he may be harrassing the girls/kicking their eggs out? Now that I have replaced the eggs with big heavy ones, I will see if they get disturbed...

I still vote for the hens being the culprits.

With regard to how small a whole a rat can fit thru it depends on the size of the rat's head. Most have skulls about the size of a quarter.

 

[fuzzybutt love]

Quote:Originally Posted by NovaAman Apparently though, I am not the only person who has used their old account number and have had the bank reject the refund and send them back to the state and the IRS.

Good! I wondered about that! Really bad timing on their part, changing accounts right at tax season. I bet they lost customers over this one.

 

[RaZ]

Chicken related, I finally got a start on the coop/run today. Man, it was a cold one! I guess he temp wasn't so bad, but the wind was blowing right through me. I know it was in the low 30's when I finished for the day around 5:00. Progress is slow, but I did get a few posts up for the run, and I am using mostly recycled/repurposed materials, so it looks a little rough. Hope the girls won't mind! Will try to get a picture on here if I can get it off the camera!

Nothing wrong with recycling materials. I built my inside garage coop from left-over materials and only had to buy one piece of lattice. So my 9x11 foot coop only cost me about $27.

For my run (runs) I used plastic step in stakes that I picked up at Lowes for about $3 each and plastic netting that is 4' tall by 50 ' long. I can easily move the stakes and reconfigure the run as needed. I can partition the yard to keep the chickens out of the hostas, raspberries and hop beds. This year I'm going to use several sheppard hooks to act as fence anchors for the fencing. I can hang flower pots to help hide the runs from prying eyes. Although I'm still tempted to build a straw bale wall about 6 foot tall.

 

[Olive Hill]

Olive - Just curious, why non medicated?

Waterfowl tend to be more sensitive to medications than other poultry. Few medications have been approved for use in waterfowl to begin with -- somewhat because they're less susceptible to disease as well --- and overdoses can result in illness and death.

 

[RIRJen]

A wife asks her husband, "Could you please go shopping for me and buy one carton of milk, and if they have eggs, get 6." A short time later the husband comes back with 6 cartons of milk. The wife asks him, "Why did you buy 6 cartons of milk?" He replied, "They had eggs."

 

[NovaAman]

.

Good! I wondered about that! Really bad timing on their part, changing accounts right at tax season. I bet they lost customers over this one.

Well, they said that they sent 3 notices to people about it and it has been on the opening page of the website since the beginning of the year. I told her, "Mam, I dont look at the website, I just hit the login button. And I don't read bank mail, I usually just throw it in the bank box. I just normally open the bills and thats about it."

For my run (runs) I used plastic step in stakes that I picked up at Lowes for about $3 each and plastic netting that is 4' tall by 50 ' long. I

If you can, sometimes this time of year LOWES will have them clearanced. Other wise they are just over 2 at TSC.