I raise chickens in my backyard hoping for some fresh organic eggs. The only problem is something is getting them before i am. I have some tracks down by my creek from a big raccoon. The raccoons in the area are my biggest suspects. I love nature and I know it is perfectly natural for predators to go after fresh eggs. I am buying all the feed so I wish the predators would atleast share a few eggs with me. I have the chickens decently enclosed and I am gonna do my best to make my coop and pen like fortknox come payday. I hope someone can give me suggestions on what else could be getting them and what I could do to run the predators off. Ultrasonic devices are out of the question because I also own rabbits. A flashlight and shotgun is also out of the quesion because unfortunately I work nights.

 

electric fence?

 

Thinking that may help some but if it is coons they are very smart. I will incorporate it into my plan because if the small egg eating predators are there the larger animal eaters probably are not far behind.

 

Try Hav-a-Heart traps, they do not harm the racoons or what ever else may be eating your eggs. They are a cage, then you simply haul the animals off and release them to be a pest for someone else.

 

how bout collect them every day? check every morning. Our chickens always laid during the day anyhow. Also, SNAKES...they love fresh eggs.

Place a small egg sized light bulb in the coop. The chickens will still lay, and the snake will eat the bulb. When he wraps around a tree to break the 'egg', it will solve your snake problem.

 

i love the words "organic eggs" HAHA. all eggs produced in the usa are organic. poultry production has some of the tightest regulations of any industry in the us. not to mention its the only farm animal that is banned from the use of hormones. so please dont be fooled by these organic non organic eggs.

Matt

 

Skunks love eggs as well. The only thing you can do that is effective 24/7 is to seal up the cage top, sides and all around the base area. Critters are very smart as you stated and have lots of time and motivation to get in there and munch. If you broom the dirt around the cage area every evening you'll be able to confirm what's getting through and where they are doing that.

 

Fordboy you may be right but raising some of my own food makes me feel better. I have heard and would like to believe they don't use hormones in chicken. That pelletized food the broilers get grow them to store size in six weeks flat. I have never seen that rate of growth in anyones backyard. I have also been in some commercial layer houses with awful conditions. Besides if you ever ate a fresh egg from an aracauna hen you would never want to buy an egg from the grocery store again. Another thing is the chickens ducks and rabbits allow me to do without chemical fertilizers plus caring for the animals relaxes me.

 

Years ago, I saw a home-made sign on a post in Arkansas, "We sell reel fowl eggs" ...... probably organic.

 

the reason you dont see this production is because of a couple factors:

1 your feed. poultry producers can feed 3 - 4 diff diets formulated specifically for that stage of growth.

2 genetics. these birds are bred to grow fast on very little feed. esentially poultry producers have over bred the birds. the bones and circulatory systems cant keep up with the over sized breasts.

3 generations (kinda with genetics) tyson foods has grown chickens for years. how many crops of chickens can you produce a year? A HELL OF ALOT. meaning they got really friggin good at it. every 6 weeks they get a turn over on their meat chickens (pullets)

so as you can see i have tried to give facts that support the none use of hormones. they dont and CANT use them. the gvmt wont allow it.

now i must make this clear.... i do not support companies such as tyson, they have ruined chicken production. there never again will be a little man in the chicken industry. you cant compete. (granted tyson uses small farmers to grown THEIR birds for THEM to help control disease).

Matt

p.s. i love eating what i grow also so i see your point

 

I would say, get yourself a dog. A small beagle perhaps... use an electric fence to keep the dog outta the hen house, and the dog to keep the critters out.

 

...Snakes ...

 

You can get glass eggs at tractor supply.or your feed store..traps work good for the coons..the dog would be good but your not home to back him up..just build the best pen you can to keep out stuff you dont want in..good luck.. bill

 

Get some neck breaker traps & bait them with eggs. That way you don't have to deal with a mad coon.

 

I like all the suggestions so far. I am almost certain the coons are doing it. I got a chainlink 10x10 dog kennel type pen with the back panel used as the top. The balance of the top is a strip if chicken wire. An 8x10 metal barn is backing this. I saw some egg fragments on the outside of the pen plus a tripod deer stand I had laying on top of the barn on the ground. I figure a small enough predator to go through that chainlink fence would be eating the eggs on the spot rather than trying to tote them. I think a coon is likely robbing the nesting box pushing the eggs through the chain link fence then climbing the fence and going across the top of the barn to get out.

I got to handle this coon problem kind of delicately. My wife was talking to the neighbor on the other side of the woods today. Apparently the neighbor told her he has been feeding five coons for years. He claimed he even has them eating out of his hands and pets them. I wish people would not try to make pets out of wild animals it makes them a nuisance.

I have got a roll of fine mesh hardware cloth. This stuff is almost as fine as insect screen. It should be enough to go around the bottom of the chainlink fence about 36 inches up. I will also seal the area where the fence is open at the gables of the barn with tin or hardware cloth and go from there when Payday comes. I will have that whole chainlink fence sealed with hardware cloth before is over with.