M
Member 482121
Guest
A long time ago I placed three ceramic eggs (bought at TS) in the laying boxes of one of my chicken houses where I almost always found eggs on the floor. The ceramic eggs helped whichever hens were laying outside the boxes, and I never found eggs on the floor again. Out of lazyness, I just left the fake eggs in the nests, where they stayed for three years. A few weeks ago, one of the fake eggs was gone. I looked for it in the boxes, on the floor, everywhere. Gone. The chicken house is surrounded by a fence made of chicken wire and it is covered with the same metallic netting. The chicken house is closed at night with two latches and a padlock (I leave the key in the padlock because I know that raccoons know how to open latches, but I doubt they'd be able to turn the key to open the lock). We gather the eggs every night before closing the chicken house door though there is a bit of a gap between the door and the house, not wide enough for a possum or raccoon to go through. Well, last night my wife noticed that another fake egg was missing. No great loss, I have more and, besides, now my hens know better than laying on the dirt. But what could have stolen fake eggs? Why? Did it happen during the day when there are real eggs to be had? Did it happen at night? Of course fake eggs that have been in laying boxes for years must smell like real eggs to a rat, or squirrel, or snake. But I can see the chicken house from my living room window, and we often watch the chickens' antics--they never fail to amuse us, especially "chicken football," when one of the hens grabs a lizard, or a large bug she can't gulp down right away and runs with it chased by the others that want to steal her juicy morsel. Anyhow, we've never seen any animal steal a real egg in four years, since that first chicken house was built. Quite a mystery, huh? There is only one fake egg left, and I expect that one to be stolen soon. Should I place a surveillance camera in the chicken house connected to a recorder in my house? Naw! Too complicated and spendy. The chickens know who or what the culprit is, I am sure--but they won't talk! Oh, by the way, it would have been impossible for us to have picked the fake eggs mistaking them for real ones. The fake ones are much lighter than real eggs and, besides, I painted smiley faces on them because it would have been embarrassing to place fake eggs in a carton to be sold at the farmers' market.
