Nest robbed in the night!

[Flock Leader]

This morning when I got out, the first thing I did, as usual, was go check on my broody who made a nest in a large lemongrass bush for the second time in a row now. What I saw was a very agitated chicken pacing in front of the nest, and all the eggs were gone! There were some feathers lying around, and a few drops of yolk, but no blood, and no trace of egg shells.

My only guess would be a snake?.. I saw some people in this section have to deal with snakes as well. In her last hatch, one of the eggs disappeared as well, but the rest of the chicks were fine. The hen herself appears unharmed, but the presence of snakes in the yard is a concern.

I understand snakes are generally beneficial, and we do have a lot of rodents here, so presumably snakes control their population. But I can't have them going after my chickens/eggs! What to do?

By the way, I saw a snake in the yard not long ago, don't know its name in English but I looked it up and it wasn't venomous. Still, I want to keep the chickens safe. Is there any way to do that except bringing the broody&eggs inside next time?

 

[jak2002003]

I advise always to have the broody hens and their nests in a secure predator proof run, or the coop.

Its just too chancy having them outside at night sitting on the floor... they are a easy target for hungry animals or all kinds.

If it is a snake this time, it might be something else next time.

I have problems with a big crow like bird that will steal any eggs my hens lay outside their covered run when free ranging. I had a nest of 11 eggs that were due to hatch and the birds ate the lot... I was so upset after waiting excitedly for 19 days!!!!

 

[jh1013]

I recently had a chicken/rat snake come into our chicken coop kill the broody hen and eat her eggs. Those snakes are terrible, they can squeeze through the smallest hole & the chicken wire its self. I found that snake & made him pay for killing my little hen. She was 5 days from hatching and just whenI thought i might finally get chicks they get eaten. Bummer.

 

[Flock Leader]

Thank you for the replies! Yesterday I spoke to my husband about being more serious regarding chicken security. Ever since we got our dog the fox problem is pretty much solved, so we kind of got lax... I told him that if we want to raise chickens without twitching every time someone clucks in her sleep, we need a concrete-floor coop with teeny tiny wire.

 

[CherishHolland]

My dad was an exterminator for years and his advice on how to keep snakes away from my chickens was to go buy several boxes of moth balls take old panty hose cut some off tie a knot on one end fill with mothballs and tie the other end closed make several mothball sachets,and place all around the stink will keep snakes at bay. When they dissolve just make more. I have used this method for a while now because where I live rattle snakes are present as well as several other breeds,but I have yet to find any near my house or the coop.

 

[jak2002003]

Thank you for the replies! Yesterday I spoke to my husband about being more serious regarding chicken security. Ever since we got our dog the fox problem is pretty much solved, so we kind of got lax... I told him that if we want to raise chickens without twitching every time someone clucks in her sleep, we need a concrete-floor coop with teeny tiny wire.

That would be perfect............but also have the top of the run covered to stop animals climbing or flying into it.

It was the best thing I did making a secure run for my hens and pigeons. Now I can relax and don't have to wake up in the night to some disturbances. Its also much easier for people to look after my birds now - they don't have to round them all up and lock them away every night. Now I can have my first holiday in 4 years !!!!

 

[Flock Leader]

My dad was an exterminator for years and his advice on how to keep snakes away from my chickens was to go buy several boxes of moth balls take old panty hose cut some off tie a knot on one end fill with mothballs and tie the other end closed make several mothball sachets,and place all around the stink will keep snakes at bay. When they dissolve just make more. I have used this method for a while now because where I live rattle snakes are present as well as several other breeds,but I have yet to find any near my house or the coop.

That is a very interesting tip, we'll have to try it!

 

[Flock Leader]

That would be perfect............but also have the top of the run covered to stop animals climbing or flying into it.

It was the best thing I did making a secure run for my hens and pigeons. Now I can relax and don't have to wake up in the night to some disturbances. Its also much easier for people to look after my birds now - they don't have to round them all up and lock them away every night. Now I can have my first holiday in 4 years !!!!

We free-range, which makes sense for us, because we live on terrain which is so uneven and rocky that making a big secure run would be just too challenging (barely found a flat area to fit in the coop and goat house!). But usually our hens round themselves up. I hear you about holidays, though. We've just been away for a weekend and I twitched the whole time... "is everything OK at home?" - also had to take the young chicks with us, because I didn't trust anyone with them.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I’m not convinced it was a snake. How many eggs did you have to start with? I’ve had a 5’ black snake eat eggs out from under a broody. It only took four eggs at a time, left for a few days to digest them, then came back for more.

A snake swallows the egg whole, then crushes it. You should see no yolk. That’s what makes me think it wasn’t a snake. You should not see any yolk. A snake’s not likely to disturb the hen’s feathers either.

All the eggshells disappearing though really confuses it. Possums and skunks will sometimes eat eggs out from under a hen too without hurting the hen, though sometimes they kill and eat the hen. It’s hard to tell what an individual predator will do. But a possum or skunk should have left egg shells.

Raccoons will sometimes carry the eggs away from the nest a bit before they eat them, so you might find a pile of egg shells somewhere in the vicinity. Or maybe the eggs wound up back with her babies?

Foxes, dogs, or coyotes will eat the eggs whole and will eat a nest full, not just a few. But you’d think they’d be more interested in eating the hen. Who knows what happened? Maybe they frightened the hen off and took the eggs back to their young?

I don’t know what actually happened there. It could have been a snake, but I’m not convinced from what you said. But does it really matter what it was? The eggs are gone and the hen is OK.

You can’t guarantee your chickens will always be safe when you free range. Sometimes you can go years without losing one, but the risk is always there. My problem has not been foxes, coyotes, hawks, anything wild. My problem has been people dropping dogs off out here in the country. When dogs get into your chickens, you can lose a bunch at one time.

I solved my problem by getting electric netting from Premier. It costs me more in feed since they can’t forage as well as they could before and you have to keep the grass and weeds from growing up into it and grounding it out, but it has stopped the dogs. I lock them in a secure coop at night.

There is nothing wrong with moving a broody to a safe location. You take the risk of breaking her from being broody, but there are techniques that work most of the time. It’s your decision. Do you want to take that risk of breaking her from being broody or the risk of leaving her where she is? As you saw the first time, they don’t always end in disaster.

 

[Flock Leader]

I’m not convinced it was a snake. How many eggs did you have to start with? I’ve had a 5’ black snake eat eggs out from under a broody. It only took four eggs at a time, left for a few days to digest them, then came back for more.

A snake swallows the egg whole, then crushes it. You should see no yolk. That’s what makes me think it wasn’t a snake. You should not see any yolk. A snake’s not likely to disturb the hen’s feathers either.

All the eggshells disappearing though really confuses it. Possums and skunks will sometimes eat eggs out from under a hen too without hurting the hen, though sometimes they kill and eat the hen. It’s hard to tell what an individual predator will do. But a possum or skunk should have left egg shells.

Raccoons will sometimes carry the eggs away from the nest a bit before they eat them, so you might find a pile of egg shells somewhere in the vicinity. Or maybe the eggs wound up back with her babies?

Foxes, dogs, or coyotes will eat the eggs whole and will eat a nest full, not just a few. But you’d think they’d be more interested in eating the hen. Who knows what happened? Maybe they frightened the hen off and took the eggs back to their young?

I don’t know what actually happened there. It could have been a snake, but I’m not convinced from what you said. But does it really matter what it was? The eggs are gone and the hen is OK.

You can’t guarantee your chickens will always be safe when you free range. Sometimes you can go years without losing one, but the risk is always there. My problem has not been foxes, coyotes, hawks, anything wild. My problem has been people dropping dogs off out here in the country. When dogs get into your chickens, you can lose a bunch at one time.

I solved my problem by getting electric netting from Premier. It costs me more in feed since they can’t forage as well as they could before and you have to keep the grass and weeds from growing up into it and grounding it out, but it has stopped the dogs. I lock them in a secure coop at night.

There is nothing wrong with moving a broody to a safe location. You take the risk of breaking her from being broody, but there are techniques that work most of the time. It’s your decision. Do you want to take that risk of breaking her from being broody or the risk of leaving her where she is? As you saw the first time, they don’t always end in disaster.

Thank you for your long and informative reply.

Just to clarify, there *were* only 4 eggs to begin with (there were 7 at first, but we candled and discarded 3 as there was no development), so a snake could easily have eaten them all at once.

We've had problems with dogs too, with the neighbours' (which resulted in half a goat's ear bitten off) and our own which escaped a couple of times (3 chickens killed).

We don't live in the US, so we don't have raccoons and possums here. What we do have is foxes, feral dogs, various birds of prey (although I've never seen them go after my chickens), rodents and snakes. Oh, and wild boar and deer, but that's more of a threat to plants.

I've seen eggs disappear this way before, but that was while the hen was just accumulating her clutch, and did not begin sitting on the eggs yet. That poses another problem: suppose I can move a broody with her clutch, but how to keep eggs safe *while* she is making the clutch? Somehow I can never get them to lay in the secure places I make for them. Even if they usually lay in the coop, once they go broody they find someplace else to nest.