[pigeonpie]

My first lot of ex-battery hens a few years back were rather feisty girls and wouldn't let other birds (pigeons, jackdaws, etc) anywhere near their food.  However, this lot I currently have are a bit "chicken" (sorry couldn't resist!) and let anyone and anything help themselves to their food.

We're trying to deal with the problem (which involves a pointy stick that goes bang) but in the meantime we're losing a lot of food to the extra mouths that we're feeding.

Now, to top it all off we also seem to be losing a lot of eggs.  I know that sometimes our girls lay softer eggs and that when they do they quite often eat them.  However, just recently we have been finding eggs that look and feel good that have a large peckhole in one end and all the filling gone.  Now I know it's possible that we may have an egg eater or two within our flock but I am starting to wonder if the chooks eggs are being targeted by something else.

On the days that we're around the garden, and therefore less chance for the outsiders to fly down, we have about 6 - 8 eggs.  On days when we're not we have 2 - 3 eggs.
Any thoughts?  Has anyone else had problems / suspicions that jackdaws may be stealing their eggs?

[Casey76]

What type of feeder do you use?  A treadle feeder might be an option?

And yes, jackdaws will take eggs, so I think you will just have to keep vigilant, unfortunately

[Blobbs]

A pal of mine has magpies go into the coop to steal eggs !

[nic_28]

I had a problem with birds eating my pellets, so the kids and I built a scarecrow! We move it around the pen and dress it up every once in a while. Fun fun fun! Lol

[pigeonpie]

We currently have Her Majesty The Queen watching over the feeders. 

I knew our posh scarecrow would come in useful after the Jubilee weekend...!!!

I just hope she has some luck in scaring them off - "Off with their heads..."