What we thought was egg eating chickens, now looks like it might be something else.
Please let me know your thoughts, as we're not totally convinced it's rats either, but the jury is still out. Could it be something else? Weasels? We collected eggs today, and had a better number of viable eggs than in days past. We usually find eggs every couple of days broken and the insides gone. They looked to be rolled out of the nesting boxes. Remaining shells have been found in the coop and in the chicken run. Our chickens no longer sleep in their coop, they sleep outside on top of the house.
We added the oyster shell supplement to their diet to help strengthen their shells, about 2 weeks ago. They are eating it and we have had a lower rate of destroyed eggs.
Here's the conundrum; two of the eggs we found today have what look like canine teeth bite marks. The crazy part, is between the two eggs there are a total of 6 bites, and each of them measures the same 3/4" width. Could this still be a coincidence and random chicken pecks? I have a hard time believing it, but need someone with more experience to let me know if they've seen anything like this before.
I could not tell you on this one. I have not seen that before.
ReplyDeleteIf you think something is getting in try moth balls around the pen and see if that stops.
Sorry, that's all I got.
How about snakes? We don't have snakes here but I have heard that snakes love eggs. What ever it is has to be a predator because the chooks are scared but one that doesn't grasp like a raccoon or you would have lost some or all of the Hooligans by now. My vote is snakes. You need to plug up a few holes maybe and look around your coop to see if you have a nest. UGH.....
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