Egg Sucking Predator

[mystkblu]

We've had a problem all summer with eggs in the nest boxes being pecked open and eaten. I assumed it's this strange weather and drought that has stressed my hens and have done everything to give them the best feed and water. I finally just chalked it up to a bad year. However, two days ago I found one of my ducks nesting way out in the pasture and brought her back to a small protected pen with a shelter and good fence. She settled right in and I locked the door on her house over night.

At 6 am I opened her door and went to work. When I got home 3 of her eggs had been eaten. The shells showed about a quarter to half dollar sized hole and had been dragged a few feet from the house. However, my chicken eggs hadn't been eaten that day. I moved the other ducks in with her so she had 3 large drakes and another hen with her. The last egg was there when I left for work, but when I got home that afternoon, the last duck egg was eaten AND there was an eaten chicken egg in the duck pen. I concluded that something has been raiding my chicken coop all summer and took advantage of the duck eggs when I moved them next to the coop. All predations happen during the day. None of the birds have been harmed.

We live in SW Colorado so we don't have possum. We do have raccoon, skunk, weasel, pack rats, mice, all the larger predators like fox and coyote which we've ruled out, and raven, crows, magpies and jays. Our fences are tight and only a small animal could get through the fence but anything that could climb could certainly come over. Our cats and dogs are fantastic at taking out any rodents the size of rabbits or smaller. I've seen eggs taken by larger predators like raccoons and possum and they generally crush the eggs rather than punching a hole.

I'm wondering if any of you have seen eggs that have been eaten by jays or corvids or weasels? The chicken egg that I found in the duck pen HAD to have been moved from an elevated nest box, in a coop and over a 6 foot chain link fence to end up in the duck pen. I have a medium size live trap that I will bait with eggs and set up in the vacated duck pen. I'm concerned that a weasel or magpie is not going to weigh enough to trip the trap.

I'm curious if any other fowl owners have had this type of daytime egg attack and confirmed what was doing it.

 

[kcjones]

we were having eggs sucked , usaully didn't find a shell, i evenually ran into a large water mocasin in the coop.i have been spraying tea tree oil under coop and around outside of run , as long as i keep oil sprayed snakes seem to stay away, no broke eggs anymore.

 

[mystkblu]

I've had snakes eat eggs before but the ingest them whole or crush them. And my chickens destroy any snakes they find on the farm so I'm pretty sure we can rule out snakes. Especially since the holes in the shell are well defined. The chicken eggs are less sturdy so you couldn't quite tell what happened from the pieces of shell. The duck eggs are so much harder that you can see the hole left by the perp.

 

[Oregon Blues]

Crows will make a round hole in one side of the egg and eat the contents

 

[mystkblu]

This is typical of the egg carnage we've experienced all summer. This one was found in the nest box today along with two unharmed eggs. It appears the yolk was entirely eaten and the white left behind. It's obvious why I would think the chickens were eating their own eggs -the eggs being attacked in their own nest boxes. But the duck eggs were in a separate pen, iisolated from the chickens and exhibited the same type of damage but the embryos were completely eaten - only a little blood and yolk sack left attached to the inside of the egg.





We've set a Havahart trap baited with eggs super glued to cardboard and zip tied to the trap so they can't easily be pulled out of the trap.





The trap is now set in the duck house where we've locked it down tight and none of our own animals can get in:



Now we wait and see what happens.

 

[kcjones]

hope you get them

 

[mtngrl812]

mystkblu, did you ever catch anything? I am wondering if your trap worked and you caught a magpie?

 

[mystkblu]

Well, I hadn't realized its been so long since I posted this up! We finally did find out what was getting the eggs. It was MAGPIES. They'd fly into the coop, peck a hole and eat the innards. My solution was to buy rolling next boxes - the hens lay the eggs and they roll down into a little collection area where the magpies couldn't reach them.