We have a thief in our midst. For a while, I was slightly mystified as often a chicken would spend a good while sat in the nesting box, only for me to find no egg when I came back later. I thought they might be phantom laying!
But then, I started seeing a few broken eggs in the boxes. Perhaps our peckies are now so heavy, they are squashing each other's eggs?
A splatted egg. But, where is the shell and the yolk??
However, my suspicions were raised when I started seeing a trail of yolk out of the hen house, and then found a shell half way down the road. What could this dastardly creature be? A stoat, perhaps? Little Willow proclaimed it was almost certainly a frog, "a very hungry and naughty one". I tried to visualise this naughty amphibian hopping down the hen house ladder with an egg in his arms, but it seemed unlikely.
The only thing to do was set up a camera by the hen house, in true 'crazy chicken lady' style.
And we caught them red-handed! Or, red-beaked, as it happens.
Unfortunately, there are not many ways of stopping naughty magpies from stealing eggs. My tactic currently is running out as soon as a chicken has laid to try to grab the egg before the magpie does. Thankfully with working from home, this is potentially possible for the time being - and hopefully if they are thwarted consistently for a while they may give up! Fingers crossed...
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