I have an egg thief

[garry]

Something is stealing eggs from under a setting hen. My guess is it is a snake because there is never a mess or egg shells. Would you all agree it is a snake and if so how to I eliminate it? Thanks.

 

[zzvyb6]

Snake oil.

 

[zzvyb6]

Hide an egg shell filled with Alka Seltzer tablets.

 

[lennyzx11]

I had a raccoon sneaking in a few years ago. Finally saw him late one night. And live trapped him a couple of nights later.

 

[Ed of all trades]

I grew up on a farm and mom had chickens. If we heard her scream in the hen house we knew it was a snake or a soft shelled egg. If she screamed twice it was a snake. One time she found a snake in a nest and she killed it with a garden hoe. She brought it out and through it on the ground and it had a lump in it. I was little and asked her what it was. When she said t was an egg I asked her to break it. She hit it with the hoe and it did not break. After hitting it for a while she stood on the snakes tail and started pushing it out with the hoe. She finely pushed out a wooden egg that a neighbor had turned on his lathe for her. I bet that snake wished for a couple Alka Seltzers. Sorry for side tracking your thread but I could not resist. Ed

 

[garry]

We are watching intently but cannot seem to spot him. We have blown out the contents of three eggs and filled them with salt, plugged the holes with candle wax.Now we are waiting to see if they disappear.

 

[GLyford]

I have heard of the wooden egg trick, especially when you know all the holes in the coop are smaller than the wooden egg, traps the snake.

 

[dmccarty]

Found a nice black snake eating chicken eggs. Greedy little bugger had eaten two and was after the third when I found him. :thumbdown: I moved him off into the woods and he never came back. I like black snakes so no way was I going to kill it. Copper head would have been D E A D quick.

Later,
Dan

 

[kcflhrc]

Yep, no reason to kill the Black Snake. They do more good than harm.

 

[dieselcrawler]

My wife has this theory that if a snake is big enough to see, it's big enough to run from... and if she has to run from it, I have to kill it.

Nothing makes her scream like spotting a snake or a mouse.

When I was a kid, we had a wooden egg to put in the nest to encourage the hens to lay there, not where ever they felt like it. Never had snake issues, but raccoons and possums liked eggs... and hens.

Good luck finding your current issue.