Egg Thief?

[BarleySugar]

OH thinks I'm paranoid, but I still think this is suspicious. Since Christmas I've usually been getting 4 eggs a day from 8 chickens, and this went to 5 since one of the skylines started laying a couple of weeks ago. Now I know hens do take a day off, but it seems strange if they all decide to take the same day! Sometimes I'll find one or two when I let them out in the morning, but then nothing else.

Yesterday was a case in point, BUT we went out, and there was no car on the drive. It dawned on me that the days we aren't at home seem to be the days I get fewer eggs. We go out the back gate which doesn't lock, so anyone could get in. Nothing else is missing. One of son no2's friends suggested setting my laptop up in the greenhouse to monitor the chicken run, but I don't want to loose the laptop, it cost much more than a few eggs

Bolting the gate and using the front door seems a sensible way to go, but as OH gives no credence to my theory he isn't willing to adjust the gate so we can bolt it

[alldigging]

Can you set up the laptop to look out of a window?

[veggiechicken]

For a completely different reason we used to put a voice activated tape recorder in the chicken house! (For a neighbour who said he found chicken noises very soothing.) Just wondered whether something similar left in your henhouse would record someone coming in?

[RichmondHens]

I get the impression you think it is a two legged thief, but the more likely explanation is a four legged one in the form of rat, weasel or stoat who are too clever to come when you are around. Also consider avian predators like magpies or crows, but if these are stealing them you would most likely find traces of yolk and shell.

[bearded bloke]

Pin a note to the hen house ............ SMILE YOU ARE ON WEBCAM .......

[petal]

bet its a squirrel!

[Glutton4...]

When we cleared out my old Chook run at my Folks' place last year, my Dad found a hoard of around thirty undamaged eggs, hidden under his timber pile. Rats' store! Thieving wotsits!

[veggiechicken]

My neighbour's Jack Russel nips into the coop and carries the eggs out to eat. They couldn't believe it until they saw him with an egg in his mouth

[Feral007]

Would be a snake round here.

[Peppermint]

A few years back we looked after some dogs and chucks for a family on holiday. It was the old, barely able to make to the end of the drive, Labrador that we found squeezing out of the hen hatch with an egg in his mouth

[ancee]

Any more news Barleysugar? have you been Miss Marple-ing?

[scorpius]

You may have egg eating chickens

[BarleySugar]

I can't find any evidence of 4 legged thieves, and there is no egg shell or yolk stained straw to show they are eating them. We aren't in the garden that much with the weather so I would expect a 4 legged thief to strike whether we were home or not.
Yesterday we were out shopping in the morning, taking the car. I collected one egg when I let them out in the run, then no more at all, we were back by 1.30pm. Today I went out at 12.30, having been indoors all morning, 5 eggs! OH is picking up a combination padlock and fixing at Homebase while he is out. If I still get such variations then I will mentally apologise to those round about who have been under suspicion (obviously without proof I haven't actually accused anyone).
I did consider setting up the laptop in the bedroom window that overlooks the garden, but as OH says, fixing a padlock will put a stop to it if there are 2 legged intruders. However, I don't like the idea of anyone coming into the garden at all, so I'm still considering the cctv option. I've also considered leaving one of the more distinctive eggs in the nest box, going out, and then seeing it it is still there when I get back, just to satisfy myself that there is a thief.

[lettucegrow!]

Very annoying who or whatever it is. I'd be very concerned if someone was coming in the garden. The laptop idea sounds a really good one. Keep us posted!

[veggiechicken]

Get some rotten eggs and leave those in the nest box when you got. That might stop a thief from returning!