Squirrels stealing eggs

[UrbanEnthusiast]

Squirrels are stealing my pullet eggs. They are Exchequer Leghorns who are supposed to lay a smallish egg, so I fear they may never get too big for the squirrels to take. Rats I can live with because they only come out at night, so as long as I collect from the yard before dusk, no problems. But how do I deal with squirrels? I live in the city, so I can't shoot them. I would prefer not even to trap them as we have so many squirrels in this neighborhood, the problem would surely return in short order. What do I do about this? It's not like I can stand around in my yard all day catching eggs as they pop out!

 

[CluckyCharms]

I'm interested to see what people have to say in regard to squirrels, too...so I'm bumping this up for you. We have such a large number of squirrels in our area that it teeters on obscene! Just yesterday I was in the yard trying to figure out where to plant our garden...and there were 6 (yes, six) squirrels on one of our trees alone! They're loud, too...not to mention the fact that they chase our dogs (not the other way around). We have a 4lb Yorkie and a 5 lb Yorkie and the squirrels constantly chase them.

...now I'm worried about our soon-to-be chickens too. Sigh..didn't know squirrels were egg thieves! Not good!

I hope you get some replies to this.

 

[UrbanEnthusiast]

Well, I don't think squirrels often steal adult, large-fowl eggs. Mine are getting stolen because these are pullets from a small-egg-laying breed, so these eggs are about 1/3 the size of the eggs we get from our Wyandotte and Welsummer hens. But the ones I've managed to get so far are about 3X more delicious, so I want them!!

 

[suki'smom]

Maybe put a chicken diaper on each of them, then when they lay the egg it will be in the diaper...along with all the poo...lol sorry that's all I could think of.

 

[real_redhead]

That is too funny (although I know not funny to you!!) I never heard of squirrels doing that before. My girls chase the squirrels. No squirrels enter our backyard anymore, they run along the fence or go from tree to tree but I never see them on the ground anymore. I never had chickens chase squirrels until my latest batch. I have 7 that are now 17 weeks old and they started chasing small birds and squirrels when they were about 8-10 weeks old. It is alot of fun to watch. Good luck I hope you can solve the problem.

 

[iluvsedward]

I'm having the same problem I think... Not 100% sure but pretty sure... I don't think I ever had this problem (or maybe I didn't notice it before) so I am hoping its only happening because of the squirrels preparing for hibernation.