egg eating somethingornuther

[heehaw]

give me your guess on what has been getting my eggs, but i will tell you in advance, i haven't got a clue what is/was doing it. had a goose sitting on 8-10 eggs, the next day they where all gone, with no sign of any remains: took 12 hen eggs out of a nest and put them under the goose, 2 days later they where all gone, with no sign...bought a ceramic egg, put it in the nest with 4 or so hen eggs, the next day the eggs where gone, and the next day the ceramic egg was gone. drilled holes in some hen eggs and filled them with pyrithimins(misspelled), put them in the nest and 2 days later they where gone, put in a couple more hen eggs and they disappeared, oh yes, i forgot, i had a live trap with 2 eggs in it, sitting 2 ft. from the nest all this time, those eggs never disappeared. i finally admitted defeat and quit putting eggs in the nest. any ideas???
heehaw

 

[RichZ]

Could be lots of critters. Could be raccoons, possums, foxes even some kinds of snakes eats eggs, but snakes wouldn't take so many so fast.

I'm guessing raccoons. Possums would be my second choice.

 

[Von]

With no sign of the shells around, my guess is a neighbor! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif Might want to set up some kind of video cam.

 

[PBMAX]

Hate to say it but neighbors or kids was my 1st thought given the things you have tried. But I guess it could be a varment. Do ya'll have weasels out yonder?They can be sneaky. So I've been told,me I've never seen one except on loony tunes....
But I remeber my Grandaddy cussing about them and O'possume /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif. and the occasional fox...

Instead of a camera try a sign that says hiddin servalance camera (with the FOX alarm LOGO on it) in use a friend tried this over buying one when some one kept messing with things around his house and it stopped and was cheap.... If it's poeple that might work if it's a varmit good luck...

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Any egg sucking dogs around ????

 

[heehaw]

i "figured" raccoons or neighbors would have taken the eggs out of the live trap too?? the hen eggs i was using are in a nest inside my barn, about 100ft from the location of the goose nest, also the goose nest was about 25 ft from the pond..but i have a small pond, no brush around it, and haven't seen a snake on it in 4-5 years. this one sure has stumped me..
heehaw

 

[StoneHeartFarm]

The goose may be moving the eggs or another bird. Our Duck moves eggs around in the hen house and occasionally the golf balls that we use to get them to lay in the nesting boxes. In fact, there is one in her pool right now that she carriedd out of the hen house.

Usually she doesn't carry them too far, though. No more than a few feet.

Steve

 

[Tdog]

Hmmm, snakes eat eggs whole, so no shell fragments would be left. How large are goose eggs? Snakes can swallow big meals, relative to their own size - - - not sure you'd want to meet the offending snake, if that is your villian.

 

[heehaw]

i'm betting on it being a snake...a opossum, racoon or other animal would have gone in the live trap and got the eggs in there too....and the fake egg may just take a long time to kill the snake??? i never thought about trying golf balls to keep her laying??? i have to mark the fake eggs or i can't tell them from a hen egg...
heehaw

 

[Chief]

I would bet on a snake or a human. More than likely the later being that that many disappeared in the same day.

 

[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