Hi all.
Haven't visited the site in a while. I have a chicken problem, and need some of your great insight to help me solve it.
Egg production has been hit or miss lately, probably like most of your flocks. Molting, shorter days, cold, etc., have left my ladies with not much to contribute. Saturday while working around the place, I would occasionally stroll down to the coop and count eggs to check on progress. Final tally was 8 by 1 or so, but when I went down to collect eggs and lock up the coop a little before 5, there were only 5 eggs left in the boxes. What could have taken the three missing eggs?
I have three possible culprits in mind: a squirrel, a rat, or our dog. I don't think it was one of our birds. When someone decides to eat an egg, it is a mess with yolk, white, and broken shell all over the box. There was not a sign of any of these in the shavings, which makes me think it wasn't a chicken.
An egg seems too heavy for a squirrel to carry off and eat. Same with a rat. Seems like there would have been evidence in the boxes had it been one of these two.
This leaves my last suspect: our Labrador Retriever. I've seen her half in the coop in the past, and I occasionally crack an egg on her food, so she has a taste for them. Plus the eggs that were missing were from the lower row of boxes, which she can get into by probably just standing in front of them. She can't get into the top ones because they're too high off the ground. As a test yesterday, I opened the pop door wide enough for one chicken to come and go, and the final egg tally stayed the same from the time the birds were done laying until I locked up the coop at 5. Coincidence?
What are some other possibles for an egg thief?
Haven't visited the site in a while. I have a chicken problem, and need some of your great insight to help me solve it.
Egg production has been hit or miss lately, probably like most of your flocks. Molting, shorter days, cold, etc., have left my ladies with not much to contribute. Saturday while working around the place, I would occasionally stroll down to the coop and count eggs to check on progress. Final tally was 8 by 1 or so, but when I went down to collect eggs and lock up the coop a little before 5, there were only 5 eggs left in the boxes. What could have taken the three missing eggs?
I have three possible culprits in mind: a squirrel, a rat, or our dog. I don't think it was one of our birds. When someone decides to eat an egg, it is a mess with yolk, white, and broken shell all over the box. There was not a sign of any of these in the shavings, which makes me think it wasn't a chicken.
An egg seems too heavy for a squirrel to carry off and eat. Same with a rat. Seems like there would have been evidence in the boxes had it been one of these two.
This leaves my last suspect: our Labrador Retriever. I've seen her half in the coop in the past, and I occasionally crack an egg on her food, so she has a taste for them. Plus the eggs that were missing were from the lower row of boxes, which she can get into by probably just standing in front of them. She can't get into the top ones because they're too high off the ground. As a test yesterday, I opened the pop door wide enough for one chicken to come and go, and the final egg tally stayed the same from the time the birds were done laying until I locked up the coop at 5. Coincidence?
What are some other possibles for an egg thief?
