Mrs

[..lay a little egg for me]

Hi all

 

We have just started having problems with eggs being pecked and eaten after they are laid. At first we thought it was one of the girls. However, I now think it is crows/magpies. Yesterday, I bought some china eggs to put in the nestbox and have been trying to get the eggs as soon as they are laid. Today I found the china eggs scattered around a long distance from the coop, so I think a bird had managed to get hold of them and tried to carry them off and then dropped them because they were too heavy/not edible. I am sure that if it was one of the girls eating the eggs they would not have been able to move it so far, especially as one eggs was the other side of a fence!

 

I saw on another thread that a fake owl might deter them. Has anyone any experience of this or other solutions? We have looked at the roll-away nestbox idea but could not fit the ones available in the shops into our coop so we would have to cobble something together. I wondered if putting a roll-away nest box elsewhere might work, for example, the girls, have in the past laid in the haybarn.

 

Any advice?

 

Thanks in advance

[Lavenders_Blue]

A roll away nest box might work if you offer that as the only egg laying area - so you would need to block off/remove your existing nest box. If your girls already lay in the haybarn then they may well take to the rollaway nest box if you place it there.

 

It might be worth continuing to put the pot eggs out too. The thief way well be put off if he keeps finding china eggs instead of the real thing!

 

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

[..lay a little egg for me]

After careful observation, I have discovered it is magpies who are the culprits. I had wrongly accused our columbine...sorry missus! Any ideas for deterring magpies?