[rileyslab]

I have four chickens and recently I have been having a problem with magpies. They started to get into the run and then the hen house. They have stolen and eaten some of the eggs. My hens have now started to either not lay (I have been having one egg a day from each of them for a while now) or the eggs have had soft shells. Yesterday I found only two eggs in the house and one of those was broken. The magpies could not have got in so it was either broken accidentally or one hen is now eating eggs. Please can anyone advise me what to do about the magpies and also my hens. When they are let out they seem happy enough and are eating well.

[Snoop]

The only way to deal with them is to stop them getting into the run. Can you put some kind of mesh roof over it?

I hate magpies. I know jays have a worse reputation, but I rarely see them, so I focus all my ire on magpies. I've even seen them attacking the cats.

[splash101]

We are heavily populated with magpies and have some nesting in our tree.
I quite like them though despite their reputation and probably because i dont really have any problems with them.

They dont go into our run. Maybe because they are too busy eating the mealworms, peanuts and fatcakes i put out for wild birds and that is the other end of the garden.

[Sassy]

Preventing the magpies getting in or trapping/shooting them is the answer. They are vermin, albeit lovely to look at, but extremely vicious. They are usually the culprits that killed birds, savaged nests that cats get the blame for. They will not hesitate to attack a cat they feel threatened by.

One or more of your chooks may be egg eating now, encouraged by the eggs broken by the magpies. It is a difficult if not impossible habit to break. You cannot really address the hens until you have stopped the magpies!

[Helenaj]

I have four chickens and recently I have been having a problem with magpies. They started to get into the run and then the hen house. They have stolen and eaten some of the eggs. My hens have now started to either not lay (I have been having one egg a day from each of them for a while now) or the eggs have had soft shells. Yesterday I found only two eggs in the house and one of those was broken. The magpies could not have got in so it was either broken accidentally or one hen is now eating eggs. Please can anyone advise me what to do about the magpies and also my hens. When they are let out they seem happy enough and are eating well.

Have you tried installing roll away nest box inserts? At least if the magpies do get in the coop they can't reach the eggs and this will also apply to your hens if one has started egg eating. If it is one of your hens, it's a habit that is almost impossible to break.

[Spana]

A  few years ago we had a session on trapping magpies. They were taking my duck eggs and ducklings.

We caught about 40, which did solve the problem.

It seemed such a shame to waste them so I took the breast meat off a couple and fried them. They were horrible, really bitter and you would need a lot for a meal.  I only did it the once. The rest went in the bottom of the muck heap.

No help to you, just thought I'd throw that in.

[Snoop]

There's a good reason why the collective noun for magpies is murder.