Egg Thief

For a few weeks now, we've been missing eggs.  We thought the hens were hiding them, like they do, and expected to find a nest in the hay, or tucked under something in the barn.  It wasn't until we started finding broken shells in the usual laying places that we started to get suspicious.  Who is eating our eggs?  I suspected our spare roosters, who are forced to steal their dinner from the watchful eye of Cogburn, the chief rooster.  To test, I placed an egg in each of the nests the hens usually use.  By nightfall, when the chickens were all tucked in bed, the eggs were still there.  The next morning, they were gone!  Not roosters then, it's something that comes in the night.  A rat?  A coon?  Now what?  

Because of this egg thief, we have had to use some of the frozen eggs I put away during the spring egg glut, which were supposed to be for use during the winter, when my old hens take a well earned break from laying.  An egg shortage always makes me wish for more chickens.  This hen must agree, because she was found sitting on a pile of eggs under the hay tarp.  Brandon and I waited until after dark, then moved her and all her eggs to a small crate, and locked them safely in the mobile coop.   There she sat, hardly moving, for three weeks.  

Right on schedule, she was up and moving about the coop with seven little fluff balls following her every move. 

Odds are, three or four of these new babies will be hens.  In six months, I'll have some young layers for my flock.  Young birds lay almost every day, and don't stop for as long in the winter.  The extra roosters will make some tasty meals, too.