There have been several strange events in the coop over the past few weeks -
1. About a month ago I came down in the morning to find the pophole open when I had definately shut it the night before.
2. There has been a definate decrease in eggs over the past couple of weeks. There have been hardly any bigger eggs, but plenty of banty eggs, so I suspect that any egg thief is trying not to raise my suspicions. Both hens have only come into lay this season, so it's not like they're just getting on a bit.
3. A couple of days ago there were two eggs, in two different nestboxes with very weird cracks in them. I have never seen these cracks before, and to get two on the same day seems very suspicious. They were cracked, with the membrane clearly visible but not broken. It looked almost like someone had stuck a finger in but not broken the membrane.
I've never had any complaints from anyone about the chickens - no one seems to mind really.
However, the coop is not locked (although it will be as soon as I'm home during daylight hours to fix it, the coop has subsided meaning that I can't get the catch to work). In the mean time I have been tying string and then literally doing a wax seal on it. I have done this for two days and it hasn't been broken. I got two eggs the day after I first did it.
Few people in my neighbourhood know of their existance, and they can't be seen from the road, but it wouldn't be difficult for several different households just to leap over a fence and do it.
It's not so much the eggs I'm worried about, it's the fact that someone has been going into my garden and tampering with the coop, which makes me worried for the girl's safety.
Any thoughts?
1. About a month ago I came down in the morning to find the pophole open when I had definately shut it the night before.
2. There has been a definate decrease in eggs over the past couple of weeks. There have been hardly any bigger eggs, but plenty of banty eggs, so I suspect that any egg thief is trying not to raise my suspicions. Both hens have only come into lay this season, so it's not like they're just getting on a bit.
3. A couple of days ago there were two eggs, in two different nestboxes with very weird cracks in them. I have never seen these cracks before, and to get two on the same day seems very suspicious. They were cracked, with the membrane clearly visible but not broken. It looked almost like someone had stuck a finger in but not broken the membrane.
I've never had any complaints from anyone about the chickens - no one seems to mind really.
However, the coop is not locked (although it will be as soon as I'm home during daylight hours to fix it, the coop has subsided meaning that I can't get the catch to work). In the mean time I have been tying string and then literally doing a wax seal on it. I have done this for two days and it hasn't been broken. I got two eggs the day after I first did it.
Few people in my neighbourhood know of their existance, and they can't be seen from the road, but it wouldn't be difficult for several different households just to leap over a fence and do it.
It's not so much the eggs I'm worried about, it's the fact that someone has been going into my garden and tampering with the coop, which makes me worried for the girl's safety.
Any thoughts?
