Whats nicking my eggs!?

[dEs 6]

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Edited June 4, 2009 by dEs

[Hardfeather 56]

Could be anything mate really not sure where you are and what youve got about I'd start by guessing corvids or squirrels.I usually move my broody's to a more secure area as i've had it before where another hen particularly wants to lay in the same nest box as the broody because thats where she's always laid,in that case eggs get broken during the scuffle and then they eat them,even though there's a perfectly good nest box next door...especially with game,hope this helps

 

yis chris

[Guest GAZCO]

Any gypsies or travelling people in the area / they are partial to a clutch of eggs now and again

[socks 32,253]

if it wasnt for the 3 to 4 foot off the ground i would guess at a hedgehog ........

[Guest sushie]

Stoat?

[dEs 6]

nm

Edited June 4, 2009 by dEs

[Hardfeather 56]

I'd be 99% certain it wasn't a human...

 

Hardfeather i see what your saying about your broodys but i was always told if ye want your hen to go off the eggs then move her! I've moved them before hoping for them to continue siting but they usually quit. Or have i got the wrong idea? I see what your saying about the other birds laying in with her to.. a couple have but i've lifted they're eggs and usually if they split eggs abit of yoke is left or mess... There was nothing!! Thats what im quite stuck on the eggs have been completely lifted from the pen.. what could do it? Squirrel could be right.. we've a few greys about here.

 

Is it magpies that just eat the eggs in the nest box to or am i dreaming? Could it be rats? I was sort of hoping we had none about here!!! I'll take a few photos of the pen to help the investigation... doubt we'll ever know though.

 

Move them at night mate they'll never know promise :ph34r:

[Guest MOLLY]

We had a hen sitting on eggs in a secure cage in the hen shed....one day all the eggs were gone, no shell...nothing...she had eaten them?

MOLL.

[rob reynolds uk 3]

crow,jackdaws .magpies,will all take eggs ,crows will yake young chicks that iv seen ,my mate came to me one day and said you nicking my eggs on his farm i said it aint me its your dog,[patterdalexborder] he said yeh right so i said fetch an egg and put it down on the floor and get the dog which he did ..the dog eat it straight away ..my mate could not belive it ,i could as i had been watching this dog do it for weeks and it climbed up the bales to get to the eggs i now have this dog ,,i have a mate now who owns a small pig farm and his kids keep hens ,ducks,ect for the eggs i go down in the week some times to shoot the jackdaws as they are nicking his eggs there a b***%*d for it ,they go under the wire most times but they will find a way if they can..why dont you make as nest high up were none of you hens can get put a few eggs in but have a trap under it ,or get your self a larsen trap ..

[Paid 935]

Rats are pretty good at stealing whole eggs, but a

sitting hen will normaly put them off.

[salclalin 240]

Sounds like one of the Corvids,i've had them going into the duck shed to take eggs until Red Dog set is Larson Trap outside.He caught quite a few.

[brock 11]

my older lurcher bitch kept taking eggs from my dads hen house

[pegandgun 52]

Its a carrion crow thats taking the eegs.Its also possible that a stout is doing the damage........

[sandymere 8,263]

i'd agree one of the crow family has got to be favorite. watched a raven with a golf ball a few weeks ago, it carried it around pecking it every little while, thought it was an egg. last saw it flying down the coast towards the nesting cliff some chicks in for a hard lunch!