The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: It-needed-a-home on May 27, 2011, 07:47:56 am
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My ducks haven't got the hang of laying indoors yet lol so when I come home I have one or two eggs and a load of shells and it's very upsetting ,,
anybody had the same and how to stop it ???
:cat: : :chook: :chook: :chook: :chook: :chook: :&> :&> :&> :&> :&> :&> :farmer: :farmer:
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shoot them or trap them the crows and magpies not the ducks :&>
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If you can keep them shut in until midday (or even later while they learn) they will have to lay - won't they?! :-\ Then you can start letting them out earlier once they've got the hang of laying indoors. I speak as one who has never had to train a duck this way (mine were all well-behaved in that way), only chickens ...
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I had 4 eggs from a dozen laying hens yesterday - caught a magpie finishing off one of the eggs >:( I think we'll be attempting to shoot it this w/end. now they know they are there...
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I have the same problem >:(
had about 6 brods of crows this year and they love eggs, i have a 22 air gun permanantly set up at our lounge window and just pop them off when i see them coming in to land, not very sporting but very effective.
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My ducks are let out of their small enclosed run attached to their shed at about 10 am, by which time they have mostly all laid. Occasionally one of the youngsters lays out in the bigger run and it vanishes in seconds! My hens are let out earlier but they go back in their shed to lay
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The Rooks around here are actually going into the hen houses to steal the eggs. Any ideas other than shooting the cheeky blighters?
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Acquire or build yourself a Larsen trap. I set one this morning at 10am and I had two crows in it by noon. 8)
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Just a quick addition re the Larsen trap. Yes, they're very easy to make, and relatively cheap to buy. However, before you use it, you will also need a license number (free) from your local police wildlife officer, and will have to abide by the conditions therein.
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FOr about 4 days now we've been down to minimal eggs due to the magpie. today it was Mr Plums 1 Magpie 0 - and I've had 8 eggs (twice as many as yesterday already) I know it sounds harsh but it was a clean shot and you also don't know what diseases the wild birds bring our hens too I guess.
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Well done Mr Plum. Even though I had a pet magpie as a child and returned her to the wild and she used to come back and visit me... Seriously, they plunder and pillage and decimate; I never knew all that when I saved that bedraggled little thing all those years ago...
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Well, this is "good" to read, we've discovered eggs are going missing today but no sign of anything going through fence, then we found some eggs in a nearby field that had been eaten, still partially whole, I think this is our mystery solved! We'd 5 eggs at 2pm and only 1 at 6pm with no mess in the nests, could then only be something that could go over the fence. Now what to do about it, crows have always come in the run for grain which is fine by me. Might leave a dog in there through the day, have no gun and couldn't shoot them anyway!
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Ducks "should" lay most of their eggs in the morning, so if you can keep them somewhere the magpies/crows cannot get to till around 11ish or so in the morning, then collect the eggs you shouldn't lose too many.
I constructed a pen this year with a wire mesh roof so stop the crows, and one day the ducks had laid up against the fence, and they ate them through the mesh GRRRRRRR >:(
But I have managed to get quite a few from them this year. :) So I shall have some Rouen to sell later in the year. Very nice large birds they are too, and not too quacky :) Plus they loooove slugs :)
All the best
Sue
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I have the "missing egg syndrome" here too. Always happens about now - magpies and crows are feeding their young. Found three shells on the floor yesterday - so annoying. Just one shed, where I have no pop hole, and prop the door open. Other sheds and pens, seem unaffected. I have started putting a board over the top of the door, where the magpie must swoop down, and thats stopped it, for now.
They seem to know when the hen starts to cackle to announce she has laid an egg, that its time to swoop down.
I know it is illegal to keep a wild bird caged, but someone I know had a magpie in their field in a cage. I asked why, and she said it was a friends, and he had loaned it to them to be bait to catch the magpie eating ther eggs. It had food and water, and apparantly was tame. Supposedly, it encouraged the other magpies to enter the cage next to it ...
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I have also got this problem...BUT.. I have an additional issue with a nearish neighbour who apparently "loves" crows etc and actively encourages them to breed in his trees. At last count there were 150 nests there !!!!!!
Yesterday.... having nothing better to do ha! ha!... I pounced on every egg laid in various places and collected almost 40, which is what I expect !!!!!! Not the 8 or so that I have been getting !!!!!!!
Every now and again, the afore mentioned person has a 'run in' with his immediate next door neighbour who shoots the crows.... quite entertaining listening to all the shouting and swearing !!!!!!
Life in the countryside can be quite fun !!!!!!!
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Every now and again, the afore mentioned person has a 'run in' with his immediate next door neighbour who shoots the crows.... quite entertaining listening to all the shouting and swearing !!!!!!
Life in the countryside can be quite fun !!!!!!!
;D reminds me of when we lost our first chicken to the fox, the neighbours told us that the woman who used to own this house actually fed all the foxes all year round - no wonder they are so sure of themselves and saunter round our garden!!
Mr plums is again stalking the magpies - there are 2 more and I think you are right Roxy, they hear the cackle and know the eggs are there for the taking...
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, crows have always come in the run for grain which is fine by me.
Crows are flesh/carrion/egg eaters. It's likely to be rooks or jackdaws which come for grain.
Crows are the ones with the heavy black beak, with long feathers around its base. Rooks have a slimmer beak, and have grey/whitish patches at its base. Jackdaws are smaller than the other two species, and have blue eyes and a dark cap on the head.
Although rooks and jackdaws can be costly in terms of the grain they consume, they also do a lot of good as well. Rooks eat a lot of leatherjackets which are harmful to crops. They are also handy for breaking up horse dung in the fields where it is impractable to lift it.
Crows build a nest in a tree isolated from other crows, changing site each season, and hold a territory during the breeding season. Rooks and jackdaws are communal nesters, returning to the same site every year, and radiate from there according to the food sources.
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I know it is illegal to keep a wild bird caged, but someone I know had a magpie in their field in a cage. I asked why, and she said it was a friends, and he had loaned it to them to be bait to catch the magpie eating ther eggs. It had food and water, and apparantly was tame. Supposedly, it encouraged the other magpies to enter the cage next to it ...
That's a Larsen trap as described above, and if used under license, and according to the applicable conditions (checked daily, food and water available at all times for the captive 'call bird' etc), it's perfectly legal. The idea is that because magpies are territorial, if you introduce a stranger (the call bird) into their area, they will try to drive it away, and in the process, will enter the trap and get caught. They are considered cruel by some though - see "Action Against Corvoid Traps" (http://www.againstcorvidtraps.co.uk/) for more information, and to get the full picture.
If the magpies / crows on your holding are 'turned on' to eating eggs at the moment, it is quite likely that a Larsen trap baited with eggs will catch them (our local gamekeeper told me that using a 'fake nest' of hens eggs, with one broken to show the yolk, works very well at this time of year). The traps themselves can be bought from Ebay etc. However, you do absolutely need to read up on the regulations, and get a license first.