An egg eater?????

[Nicos]

As you know- my gals free range and will lay in a couple of places outside- or in one of the nesting boxes in the coop.
Yesterday I found an egg on the ground outside with the pointy end missing, and empty inside.
I could have accidentally left an egg outside when I put the gals to bed- in which case an animal/bird??? of the night might have been lucky enough to have a fresh egg for supper

What I'm wondering is ...what do the remaining shells look like if the egg has been eaten by a chook?
They've never eaten one before so could I tell from the way it's been opened what ate it??
As I said- the pointy end was gone- leaving about 3/4 of the shell- and it must have been completely eaten as there was no trace of any bits lying around.
The shell was completely empty and the edge of the break was very ragged with little bits broken off.
What do you think ate it????

[MaureenHall]

My first thought would be a rat ate it, but don't take my word for it! From the description you gave, someone with experience of non-chook egg eaters will probably give you a better clue

[Bramble-Poultry]

my first gut thought was a rat too ....

usually if you haven;t got a habitual egg eater but a chicken has eaten an egg it is because it has stood on it and broke it so would be crushed.

if its a habitual egg eater they usually peck a hole in the side - biting the end off sounds ratty or stoaty or similar animal.

[Nicos]

Well- I did wonder - we have stone martins here.
I know they are very partial to eggs as the locals say they are protected- but if you have one in your house then it's big trouble...so if you put poison in an egg, it'll most certainly be eaten...and that's the end of the problem!!

Interestingly it was found within an electric fence- but the side of the piggery makes up one end- so the fencing is sort of U shaped.Clearly must have been something happy to climb up a wall- such as a rat or Stone Martin.
Hmmm...it's got a taste now hasn't it....no doubt it'll be back

[Bramble-Poultry]

unfortunatley Nicos it will - and they will take young chicks and sickly shickens too they are opportunistic, as for the electric fence and rat and a stone martin will get under that no probs they only need a couple of inches! both will dig in too if they need to.

You can try catching it using a humane trap - using a egg as bait - that way you will know what it is and how to deal with it - rat - kill it, stone matrin drive a long way away and let it go - and hope its not a homing martin!

[Nicos]

Humane trap....good idea!