What makes a chicken coop easy to live with?

[Mercedes55]

I saw an egg in the top end of my run yesterday morning, but couldn't get to it as it was too far from the door of the run. When I went back a little later on to see if there were any eggs in the nest, the egg in the run had gone. At first I thought one of the hens had trod on it or even eaten it, but there was sign of eggshell or anything else that suggested it was the hens. I've been told it was most likely a rat and that they can get inside the Eglu runs and put a whole egg in their mouth and get out again. I find it really hard to get my head around that as the egg is bigger than the gaps in the run

[The Dogmother]

Rats can get through quite small spaces, but I've never seen any take an egg - they will attack chicks and growers, but not bigger birds or eggs. Unless you have very large holes in your run, the egg would have to have been eaten in situ.

[meezers]

Unless you have evidence of rats, it was most likely eaten by the chooks. They'll eat the lot, shell and all.

[Mercedes55]

Well I have no evidence of rats other than knowing that we do get them in our garden now and again as our road has a brook running behind the back gardens and apparently where there is water there are rats, at least that is what the guy from the council told us in the past. We've had our garden checked over a few times over the years as a neighbour thought we had rats living in our garden, but we haven't. I do make sure I take the hens food in at night and try not to leave anything out that might attract them, but I guess just having chickens will encourage them

[The Dogmother]

Ferrets or a mink might take an egg.

[Jools]

Is your run on a solid base or could something tunnel in and out? If it's solid, then the culprit must have eaten the egg in situ, but you would expect some signs as broken eggs do make a bit of a mess! There are lots of egg-eaters if they're given the opportunity - magpies, hedgehogs, rats, dogs (!) etc etc - but if the run is secure, it was either something small enough to fit through the mesh or one of your chickens.

[Mercedes55]

I think the run is pretty secure on the base. We have slabs over the whole of the skirt, but the inside is earth covered with about 3/4ins of wood chips. I can't see how anything could tunnel under all of that, but then again I don't know much about things like ferrets. I didn't even know we had wild mink in the UK

 

I am keeping a keen eye on them all today, although the only egg I've got so far has been in the nest

[Bertrum]

Good luck Mercedes. From what I have read you need to nip it in the bud if it was your hens who ate the egg. Once they get the taste for it they are hard to put off I believe.

[The Dogmother]

My money is on it being a rogue hen. Sorry, but it's a hard habit to break when they start on it.

[Mercedes55]

My money is on it being a rogue hen. Sorry, but it's a hard habit to break when they start on it.

 

Well to be honest I would rather it be one of the hens than a rat. I didn't get them for their eggs as I know ex batts don't always lay eggs, I just wanted to be able to show them that not all humans put animals through such a miserable life and to try and give them a bit of happiness after all they have been through. I am totally aware that I am humanising them by saying that as I'm sure they had no idea they were being mistreated as that was all they had ever known

[Jools]

I think the run is pretty secure on the base. We have slabs over the whole of the skirt, but the inside is earth covered with about 3/4ins of wood chips. I can't see how anything could tunnel under all of that, but then again I don't know much about things like ferrets. I didn't even know we had wild mink in the UK

 

I am keeping a keen eye on them all today, although the only egg I've got so far has been in the nest

 

The slabs over the skirt will stop anything pushing it up or knocking it over, but unless the base is over slabs or concrete, then I'm afraid that it is possible for something to tunnel in. Rats are pretty determined, I had them trying to tunnel into the run on one of my arks, which is on slabs so it was a completely pointless exercise!

 

We don't have wild mink in the UK, just escapees from mink farms. They are voracious predators but their numbers are being controlled where they proliferate. We do have plenty of weasels and stoats though, and even pine martens in Scotland.

[Mercedes55]

Well I hadn't realised they could still tunnel in. We are going to order a WIR this week, which is going to mean a major overhaul of the whole area where the hens are right now. I think I will suggest to my other half that he slabs the inside of the run to make it more secure and then put some wood chips down on that. Hopefully that will stop them

[Heidi-Hi]

Sorry to laugh, but this reminds me of my sis-in-law who caught a massive rat in her nesting box the other day. She couldn't understand where her eggs were dissapearing to, and one morning Mrs Hen let rip to tell the world that she has laid an egg, and she thought, right that is it, that egg is mine! So she ran to the run, opened the little door, and there he was, sitting with the egg in his hands, still steaming, just looking at her! She said he wasn't even scared of her, she really had to make some noise before he dropped the egg and ran off! It was so funny, I could just picture it in my mind! Anyway, she didn't find any holes big enough for him to take the eggs with him, so the bad news is that he must have eaten the whole thing there and then. Eueew, I hate rats! Good luck in finding the culprit!