Who Nose?

I just have to get this one down before I forget it. We have a behavioral problem in one of our chicken tractors: somebody is eating freshly laid eggs. The clues are a slimy yellow goo on the straw bedding; no sign of egg shells, so whoever it is eats it all.

I mentioned this to Jesus our Vineyard Manager, and as is his style he had a ready solution. Back home in Mexico they grab the culprit chicken and poke a straw up its nostril (yes, chickens have nostrils too). Seems it prevents the mischief either from the horrible embarrassment of having a straw up your nose, as in A Fish Called Wanda, or it hurts like hell when you peck anything.

So now how do I figure out who's doing it?

Comments

[charles]

I would think careful attention to the expression in their eyes might reveal the culprit. Of course you could always put some kind of dye on the eggshells, and look to see whose beak is discolored. Susan might get a painting idea from that. But I think there's bound to be one chicken with a different look in her eye, unless they're all conspiring. Which, come to think of it, is probably the case.

[Lou]

Actually, I can handle the yellow smear. It's the pooping on their eggs that gets me going (so to speak). Same question, do I look for dye on their butts? And why would they do that, anyway, rebelling against authority? Maybe I should withhold estate bread from their diet until they reform.

[Laura parker]

I don't know. This seems a little drastic and how does the chicken know the punishment is from eating eggs. Maybe you're right & it just hurts like hell to peck but isn't that essence of chicken…to peck, I mean. Better just eat it, the chicken, I mean.

See you farm day if not before.

laura

[Jennifer Burke]

Oh dear. Chicken stories. There's a great blog out of Britain (http://privatesecretdiary.com) who is being inducted to owning chickens.

Did you ever find your culprit?

Jennifer

[Mary Morrison]

Are you sure it is another chicken doing the eating??? Could it be another animal? like a cat? small fox, racoon......somebody who is getting into your chicken coop? You would be surprised.

You need a spy cam in the chicken coop. They are relatively inexpensive hook up to your computer to monitor you property perimeter/door. Maybe they even have wireless versions. Once you have discovered who the culprit is, then you can use the cam to monitor your warehouse door or whatever!

[Lou]

Wonders will never cease. Mary's comment has prompted me to revisit my blog which has been moribund (or is that me) all these many months.

The eggshell mystery is now way in my past but we have moved forward in our animal farm adventure. Not Orwellian, yet, but a sign of changing times for us and maybe for others in this new Obamian epoch.

Our laying hens have been out on pasture for a full year giving us the needed experience with movable electric fencing that we are now applying to our new sheep flock. Also rotating with the chickens are two young piglets--Straight and Curly--who are successors to the delicious Mas and the soon to be sausaged Menos. Waiting in the wings are goat girls Calliope, soon to be bred, and Equinox who will also grace our winter table. Watching over all is the young but stately Giuseppe, an Italian Maremma guard dog. And me, your faithful goat-shep-swine-chick- herd who will be bedding down with Giuseppe in a teardrop trailer to listen to the munching and grunting and rooting and clucking. Haven't yet persuaded Susan to join us.

It's fun on the farm even with the occasional rooster attacking visitors. Come visit. Also comment again and maybe I'll blog more.

Lou

[Mary Morrison]

Don't you want a Barn Owl too? The more friends you have, the better! Get an owl box, or better still make one, to attract an small barn owl to the farm (or give a donation to www.Hungryowl.org). He'll keep after the rodents who will come for the left over chicken feed, etc.

[Lou]

Well, actually, we have 2 owl nest boxes, but neither is occupied yet. A couple of years ago we fostered 5 barn owl chicks that were rescued and brought to us by the Santa Rosa Bird Rescue people. They grew from tennis ball size to something approximating our little piglets. We built a hacking box to contain them until they were old enough to fledge feeding them frozen mice all the while. Of course they flew off to inhabit someone else's farm but we felt good about it nonetheless.

We have been asked to support the local Bird Rescue group as part of our sustainability program. Raptors are us?

Lou

[Mary Morrison]

I could not believe that I found this article in the Marin Independent Journal this morning--just when I was encouraging you to get a little Barn Owl, there they are writing about it.

Get a buddy Lou, get a Barn Owl. Get involved in the project. You can give a house warming party when you put in the boxes! Make an event of it.

[Mary Morrison]

I just read your last post (after I posted my comment). I wonder why your young owls did not return to their original nest/grounds??? Maybe you could ask Wildcare some of the reasons why they would not do so? Perhaps you do not have enough mice? Maybe the cats? Maybe the boxes are not placed correctly? I know that the boxes CANNOT FACE NORTH....other than that, I don't know in what direction the boxes should go.

[Lou]

The experts tell me that nesting boxes for barn owls should be on the west side of an open field facing the rising moon. That enables them to see their prey at night. Our boxes are correctly located, but have probably not been up long enough to have attracted a permanent resident. Also fledged chicks reputedly have no allegience to their nesting grounds, but may migrate to nearby (or remote) habitat.

Interested local readers could check www.birdrescuecenter.org

I'll cheeck out the IJ article.

Lou

[Ryan Fili]

It is possible to have a barn owl inhabit you box with a couple of days. The box needs to face east in so the moon can illuminate the box and the owls can see it. For us in Sonoma county when we use our compass to find east, we must take into consideration magnetic declination. Apparently barn owls are not very intelligent ad need all the help they can get. The have a pretty large radius that they can cover for hunting and are not territorial. The babies when ready to fledge fly out and slightly right, the first flight is usually about 100 feet, so they need either a tree or a raptor perch in the location for the initial flight. Barn owls are great, and you have plenty of habitat for them, but the box will encourage successful breeding.

[Lou]

You know, Ryan, we had no idea of all the possibilities when we set up our hacking box to foster barn owl chicks. Next time we'll do our homework and hopefully encourage the fledged birds to stay on the farm.

Strange, but I just thought of a favorite childhood book. It was about brer rabbit who had the charm and the wiles and the orneriness to escape or talk his way out of "situations". If I remember correctly this was a situation with Mr. Owl, followed by a quick exit to the briar patch that saved Mr. Rabbit.

I think of our hedgerows as our briar patch. They are now sufficiently developed to provide habitat to all kinds of vertebrate souls including us human types who occasionally need a retreat or refuge. I'll take both.

Lou