Squirrels eating chicken eggs

[Mervin]

Quote:
But squirrels are sooo tasty. If I a squirrel taking my organic eggs I would...

1. Set up a lawn chair in a nice sunny location and soak in some vitamin D.
2. Bring a book and a nice cold beverage
3. Bring air power rifle.
4. Take care of problem and cook em for dinner. A nice country organically feed squirrel. That meat will be so lean and full of healthy omega 3s.
5. Give the carcus and other choice organs to the chickens.

Sounds like a nice relaxing day.

Especially if you're dealing with fox squirrels. We have a species or sub-species that are similar to the more common Gray Squirrels, but they tend to stay near corn fields and food plots. They're quite a bit large than grays and probably yield about as much as a rabbit. I've been thinking about making a bunch of them into a smoked sausage or something this fall.

 

[babyblue]

Quote:
This is a slightly annoying post to me. yes, you feel that in your yard you want to commune with your nature. But don’t attempt to make others feel as if they are less then or should feel badly about themselves for reducing the vermin situation. As others have posted the squirrel pop and several other local preds are wildly out of control. They are simply rats with fuzzy tails. If there is a bad year food wise for the squirrels in my yard they go nuts and eat anything they can find, even plastic. We have totally redone all the lovely woodwork and covered it with metal on the house because during bad years the squirrels even eat wood and paint. That tells me there is a massive overpopulation problem. The hawks and owls cant keep up with them, even with at least 2 hawk nests and several owl nests on the property. Then I will get into your exclusion ideal. Not everyone can afford the fort knox of coops and give their chickens enough space for a decent life. For some familys a few hens may make the difference between their kids going hungry or not. For those families shooting a pred is the very simplest and cheapest way to protect their food supply.

 

[Ozark Chicken]

I am a participant in the "natural order" of things. I'm happy I'm at the top of the food chain. LOL

Someone said that their grays were larger than the reds (fox) hmmm Our grays here are by far the smaller species. The fox squirrels,especially the big boars get huge.
Trivia for the day. Who knew that a dominant male fox squirrel will try to get into the nest to castrate all the males in a litter?

 

[WoodlandWoman]

How are the squirrels getting in and out of the run? I would just fix that. It would be easier to fix that problem just once, than spend the next few decades shooting squirrels constantly. Also, if squirrels can get in and out, weasels, snakes or rats may be able to get in. It just depends on where the problem is.

I can see where it's a bigger pain for people that free range. Luckily for us, we don't have a problem with all the squirrels around here. There's a lot of other food here for them, but I think the hawks and owls do take their share. If we ever had a problem with squirrels stealing eggs, one of our dogs would be on guard duty for awhile. She tends to encourage wildlife to go elsewhere.

 

[Kyah]

We used to have a squirrel problem here too. I leave the barn open on nice days to air it out, and the squirrels were going in and chewing holes in my feed bags. They liked to dig up our flower bulbs too.

I had some snap traps I'd bought from Walmart - I think (?) they're called tomcat rap traps. They're quite big and meant for rats, but they work really really good for squirrels too. Anyway, I put a big gob of peanut butter on the little bait cup and within one hour (I kid you not!) I'd caught all four squirrels.

 

[PaulaJoAnne]

Eggnette's post makes an interesting point; sustainable living means different things to different people. For us, raising food to feed animals that are disrupting our main food supply (chickens, their eggs, our crops) and are in their own right very nutritious, tasty food (squirrels) is not sustainable. To us, squirrels are another renewable resource that can be harvested in a sustainable manner, that will keep their population from booming and busting, and without ruining crops, damaging buildings, or "sharing" our chickens' eggs and feed. It doesn't mean that their antics aren't amusing, that we don't enjoy watching them, but it does mean we feel no angst about putting them on our plate.

As to other predators, exclusion is used as much as possible, but trapping and shooting also are used. Skins from many can be sold or used in crafts or clothing. To say that to keep the predator/prey balance "natural," humans must adopt a "hands off" approach, is to ignore the historical record. As far back in world history as we can see, from oral tradition, the written, and the archeological record, humans have killed animals to protect life and livelihood. We choose to continue that tradition... too bad the squirrels in Alaska are so tiny! My husband likes the tails for fly tying though

 

[rileysgranny]

I haven't done it in a while, but I used to make a good tasting batch of squirrel and dumplins'.
We have lots of squirrels on our property, but our Jack Russell Terrier keeps them at their distance. I've even see one of my cochins chase a squirrel that came down the tree while they were free-ranging. But they can be a really big problem, eating crops and chewing holes in the house. My brother and son own a wildlife trapping company and squirrels are one of the most frequent calls they get.

 

[babyblue]

Quote:
thats where I see that the natural pred pop is not enough to keep them in check, therefore the humans must become the pred to keep the squirrels at healthy numbers.

 

[jimcro55]

WIRE MESH!

You guys need to protect these eggs at all cost!

It is entirely possible that the squirrels are taking a good number of eggs from your coop and you are not even noticing them.

Get some wire cloth and keep these pests OUT!

JC

http://www.bwire.com/

 

[schellie69]

I am having this problem but my girls free range all day and go in and out of thier pen to lay eggs and eat I can't put up wire mesh all over my yard would a bb gun kill a squirrel just wondering, also to the op could you post those pictures so I could prove to my family I am not crazy thinking that squirrels are stealing my eggs thanks.