egg eating somethingornuther

[diggerjim]

I think I'd have to go with human too. After living on the farm all my short life with chickens around most of the time I've never seen anything eat eggs without leaving evidence. Snakes would be the only one but they wouldn't eat that many. Surely. Unless your infested.

Jim

 

[heehaw]

well, we had a couple more eggs disappear this week-end, from a "kill-deere" nest...not sure how you spell that, but they make a nest in our gravel driveway every year. we end up dodging the nest till the eggs hatch, but they didn't make it this year..
heehaw

 

[StoneHeartFarm]

HeeHaw,

The golf balls work fine for the hens. They can't really tell if it's an egg or not. We got some big wire baskets about 8"deep and 2 foot square and screwed them to the wall. They are large enough that several hens can sit in each one at the same time. That and the golf balls seems to help. The hens were always trying to pile into one nest anyway. This way they can.

As far as eggs missing. If it's taking eggs other than chicken, it's probably not human. If it's taking that many eggs, it's probably not a snake. Could be a coon or something. Could still be some kind of bird. The reason you don't find any egg fragments is that the critter is carrying the eggs off before eating them.

Have you considered it might be the neighbor's dog?

Steve

 

[heehaw]

i haven't seen any dogs around..and i would have thought a racoon would have gone in the live trap?? i may have to set the live trap out with some tuna or sardins in it to see if that will catch a racoon or opossum?? had an armadillo run over a couple hundred yards from the house the other day, don't know if they eat eggs or not?? have had a lot of skunks killed on the road within a mile of the house this year, so there must be a lot of skunks this year!!!
heehaw

 

[StoneHeartFarm]

Might or might not have gone in the live trap. Depends on whether he had eaten enough eggs yet. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif I'm thinking dog, because it would be too big to get into the live trap, would have an appetite big enough to eat quite a few eggs, and would probably be sneaky enough to carry them off without getting caught. Don't know anything about armadillos, I've heard them referred to as an armored possum, so maybe.

If you have a camcorder, you maybe could set it up and leave it turned on. It would tape until the tape ran out and then quit, but you would at least have a few hours of tape to watch.

Steve

 

[rps]

Armadillos do eat eggs, but they break one end and leave lots of evidence. Raccoons eat almost all the evidence.

The sardines in a trap sound like a good idea. Or prepare an area of smooth dirt around the nest so whatever it is will leave good tracks.

Robert

 

[CountryBoy]

Sardines in a steel trap and a 22 rifle works well,I caught three coons in one night a few years back......hated to do it but............. man has to do what a man has to do.