Not a day go by without another to problem to work round,
Today's problem
MAGPIES
Attractive birds, clever birds, but they are a bloody pest.
This week there has been a big drop in egg production by big I mean big down to 1 egg a day and lots of broken ones, I thought I had a bad egg eating problem then this morning I noticed these down the field not too far from the hen house
Straight away I thought Magpies, the Magpies have been stealing the eggs from the dovecot and leave the shells on the lawn.
I have netted over the open part of the run that leads to the hen house, the run is L shaped and the main part coming off this is already covered.
Just in case its a marauding rat, which I don't think it is I have baited a live rat trap beside the hen house.
On the subject of chickens the little chicks who have now been installed in there own home inside the run seem to be well settled a week or so and I will let them out to mingle with the others before installing them in the hen house.
Egg production today back up again.
Fingers crossed that is the problem solved.
I wonder what tomorrow will bring ?
Well Dawn, we have the exact same issue. Theyre only taking the duck eggs and we've seen them doing it. It is today's task to get remove the magpies as we cannot cover over enough space to deter them, we've tried. It's so disheartening to get no eggs (they take 3 duck eggs a day) so I wish you well and hope the blighters leave you and your eggs in peace!
ReplyDeleteMagpies are our main egg stealers here. Hope you have sorted the problem.
ReplyDeleteI feel for you all, little buggers! I hope you manage to resolve the problem.
ReplyDeleteWe have a pair of magpies that fly around our estate and they frighten me to death. They are massive.
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