Egg Theives

We occasionally run into the problem of theivery on the farm.  Not your average burglar...we have dogs to take care of that.  I'm talking about egg theives.  They come in a variety of sizes.  We've had rats running through the coop.  They're tricky to get rid of because you cannot really set traps for them without accidentally catching chickens.  We've had chickens eating eggs...the only cure for this one is culling.  Sounds brutal, but I've never met a chicken who tasted eggs and then voluntarily quit eating them.  We've even had dogs sneaking in and having a snack.

But recently, two new theives have made their presence known on the farm.  Pigs and crows.  Now, the pigs have been on the farm for quite awhile, but they have never had access to the chicken coop until now.  We had to put the pigs in the same pen as the coop when we first arrived at the new place.  It wasn't a problem for a long time.  I mean, I knew that they would occasionally get themselves an egg or two that was laid in their pen...but they never had a real supply.  And when they were in the pen with the coop, they couldn't get into the coop itself because the pop door was made to fit a chicken, not a pig.

But I misjudged the ingenuity of a pig.  I am sure that their reasoning went something like this...

Every day we see R come into our pen to feed us.  She then opens the big white door on the side of the coop and goes in.  When she comes out, she has a bucket full of eggs.  Therefore, if we open the big white door, we will find a bucket full of eggs!

And that is just what they did.  They rooted their tough little noses on my hollowcore door (which was not meant for such abuse) until they got a corner of it off.  Then they ripped at it until they had their own pig-sized pop door...and access to all of the eggs that they could eat.  As a bonus, they could also snack on all of the chicken poop that collected under the roosts.  Yes, our pigs (and probably any pigs given half the chance) eat chicken poop.  Truly "organically" fed.

My egg collection dropped to almost nill...as did the bedding in the nesting boxes because the bucks who share their quarters with the pigs and chickens, thought that the nesting boxes were a salad bar of goodness set up just for them.  Every time I would rebed the boxes, the goats would eat it. 

I eventually "fixed" my broken door with a couple of 2x4s placed strategically accross the doorway.  At some point, I want to replace the door, but at some point, I also want the pigs to have their own pen.

The crows were somewhat of a surprise.  I knew that they eat carrion, but I didn't know that they were egg theives.  We had a dead duck out by the pens one day that drew the attention of a few crows and all of a sudden, all of my outdoor nesting boxes were empty of eggs.  And if that weren't clue enough, the duck eggs that I was leaving under the goat feeder (just in case a duck went broody) disappeared overnight.  No broken shells.  No nothing.  It had to be the crows.  In retaliation, because I would not harm a wild animal without good cause, I let the boys loose with their bb guns to scare off any crows that they see.  They, of course, relish this mission as any young boy with a bb gun and nothing to shoot would.  I don't see crows as a problem in the near future.