Magpies stealing my eggs??!! HELP

[Mrs Chickens]

Hi

Looking for some help, I have 3 coops with differant breed of cooks in over the last month we have had a drop in our eggs and wet patch's in the chickens coops.

I suspected that the chickens were eating their own eggs so went and got some dummy eggs two days later they had dissappeared!!!

So I suspected a egg thief, we have CCTV so I moved a camra to see if a person was actally helping themself to our eggs - no joy

TODAY - I caught my theif or shall I say thief's MAGPIE'S going into the coops and seeing if there is anything to take!!! What can I do?? My coops are a good walk from my house I'm also 7 mths pregnate so can hardly run up and down to scare them off and I don't own a gun (Yet!!!) and my dog is about as much use as a choclate fire guard.

What can I do - the Magpie have become very keen on my Orpington eggs which I am trying to collect eggs from to hatch so far I have 3 eggs in seven days from 3 hens which I was getting eggs from.

Please help me any ideas??

Thanks in advance

 

[fancbrd4me02]

How do the Magpies take the eggs? Aren't they kind of smallish birds?

 

[Mrs Chickens]

In the UK they are black and white birds which are about the same size as a crow, in the UK they will steal eggs and baby chick's from wild bird nest all the time. For this reason they are not a very popular bird with me anyway now they are super not very proplar I saw a pair going in and out of two of my coops today so I'm sure its them. They are clever animals for this you have to admire them

Are they the same in the states? I may be descriping a differant bird for you guys?

 

[Barred Rocks forever]

do u have a roo most roos seem to chase thme away putting up a fake owl would help to

 

[Mrs Chickens]

I have a roo in each coop and each coop has a free range pen so the cockrells pretty much don't go in until bed time and then are to far away to see or care about a magpie going in - and you know magpies are smart so I swear today one sat on the roof as look out while the other went in to check!!! They did this twice on two of my coops!!

 

[pips&peeps]

We have magpies here too, they eat my duck eggs.....

Here we can shoot them as they are not on the protected species list. You may want to see if you can shoot them too, they will call in others and you will have a bunch of them muching on your eggs and feed.

Your only other option is to close up the coop real tight so they cannot get in.

 

[Barred Rocks forever]

get somone with hunting kestrals to take care of it

 

[Mrs Chickens]

We can kill them in this country, but I don't have a gun, we may get one in the future for rabbits. I have fired off a very high powered riffel at the rabbit round here and I didn't hit even with really good sights so to hit a flying magpie is going to be almost imposible or I'm just a really bad shot.

I've got a man who comes up with his birds to do the rabbits he said that a kestrel is not likley to take a magpie, he did say we could give it a go but didn't sound hopeful.

My chickens are free range with electiric fencing round so I can't really lock them up

I really am stuck here anybody got a pratical idea's, one I had was to but a fine mesh or fabric over the door of the coop so the chickens could walk through but that may put off a magpie?? Thats it I don't have any others, I tried to see if my dog would run after them but she seems to think I'm telling her to chase the chicken's and plain won't do it besides they fly and she doesn't so its a rubish game!!

 

[Barred Rocks forever]

if he has red tails that might work i think red tail hawks would go after them

 

[guignol]

a very old thread but to add for future reference : magpies in europe and america are the same birds and are protected on neither side of the atlantic; when i was a boy in california there was even a 10c bounty on them like for crows.

they will not only try to get your eggs, they will get your chick, although the hens and maybe the rooster will be more motivated to protect chicks than eggs.

neither a dog nor a hawk will do any good. a swan or a goose would be better. but will these be motivated to protect your orpington's eggs? because a magpie both very clever and very feisty.