Chicken Lytle and the Prisoner of the Nest Box

I went to collect eggs today and found Mr. Big standing watch by the nest box. Suspicious, I shooed out the chickens and peeked inside.

The nest box was occupied by my scaly nemesis. Calmly I squeaked, "Get the camera" to Doctor Dolittle. Thus armed, I collected evidence.

Snake, caught red-somethinged

See the bulge in the middle? That was my other ceramic egg. Last time it came to visit, it took a ceramic egg and left behind a snakeskin. Apparently this snake has a veeeeeery elastic digestive exit.

The snake seemed a little drowsy after eating De's and Vo's eggs along with my second ceramic egg. It started paying a little more attention when the flash went off. 

Face to face with creepiness

It tried to make a break for it by going out the back of the nest box through a narrow gap, but was foiled by the ceramic egg bulge. Then it tried to escape by charging toward me, making my digestive exit pucker. The snake, intimidated by my standing hair and bulging eyes, turned away and headed for the pop door.

Doc and I persuaded the snake to relax with gentle application of blunt opinions. I got the dubious honor of carrying off the limp critter on the end of a shovel.

We inspected the rest of the coop, flock, and chicks. Everybody was OK and we retired to the house for a victory meal.

Later, while Doc was watching Voldemort and his scaly friend, I slipped out to retrieve the ceramic egg. I washed it about a bazillion times and then put it back in the nest box.

Mayhem managed.


Update: A local codger gave me a couple tips on how he manages snakes around his coop. He got a 7' x 100' roll of deer netting. Then he strung up spirals of the deer netting around the chicken run, sort of like the concertina wire you see in Hollywood prison camp movies. He said the snakes get caught in the netting all the time.

Jailbird Chicken

One of my chickens was eating her eggs. This is distressing because I prefer to eat those delicious eggs myself. Chickens are supposed to eat layer pellets and I refuse to switch diets with them.

Eventually the perpetrator was caught, yellow-beaked. Vo was sentenced to Chicken Jail.

She has her own roost, nest box, layer pellets, and water. All these things are in a wire cage inside the coop. As it happens, the cage top is higher than the main roost.

Now jail is the new normal for Jailbird Vo. She roosts on top of the cage. When she lays an egg, she goes inside to use her personal nest bucket.

She still fails to deliver eggs sometimes. If she has access to treats she will lay a shell-less egg the next day. But days where she eats nothing but pellets, I get an egg in her nest bucket.

The other chickens have reluctantly adjusted to her new jail privileges. Every night she gets on the roost with the others and then turns her back on them. She flies across the coop to the top of the cage. Then she turns to face them again, settles in, and smirks down on them.

She goes to sleep every night, relishing the envy of her peers and basking in the glow of stink eye.

Chicken Jail

One of my hens has started eating eggs. Wicked, wicked Vo!

But how to isolate one hen when there is only one nest box in use? Hmmmm, the other nest box is not in use....

Happily, the nest box was assembled with screws. I dismantled the unused upper nest box and extended the frame to support a 2x3 cage I had. This drew multiple feathery supervisors who made sure that everything was completed to their specifications.

I placed the cage in the support frame, added pine shavings, a nest box, food, and water.

So now I am ready for the big experiment. If Vo starts by laying shell-less eggs, but then starts laying hard eggs, then I will know that the pellet feed fixed her problem. If Vo continues to eat her eggs, I will know for sure it is her by the muck in her nest box.

After a little running around I got Vo into the coop, caught her, and placed her in the cage. Oh the chickeny consternation!

Egg Eating Inmate

She looked seriously perplexed. When I let the rest of the flock into the coop, they looked perplexed too, for about a minute. The only one to be really perturbed was Buffy, the alpha hen. She seemed angry that Vo was in a higher place than she was. If looks could kill....

Vo finished exploring her new digs and started munching on pellets. Buffy just kept giving me the stink eye.

Oh well, can't please everyone.


Update: I have started moving hens around based on whether they have laid their egg for the day. This way Vo gets out of jail and enjoys the relative freedom of the coop when the other two lay before her.

Update 2: Vo has taken on the mantle of Jailbird Chicken.

Wicked Egg Eater

I have an egg eater! Oh the chickeny wickedness!

How can I tell?

My production is down. I found a sticky spot (not poo) in the nest box last month. I saw a sticky spot (not poo) under the roost this month.

Two days ago one of the hens went into the nest box and started making this loud *TAP* *TAP* *TAP* noise. On investigating I saw her pecking at the dry, formerly sticky spot on the floor of the nest box. To keep track of the suspect, I put a yellow zip tie on her leg.

Postulating thin eggshells, I made sure they had plenty of oyster shell. Today I fed them yogurt-coated eggshells. Oh the chickeny joy!

Tonight, when I did my nightly check with a flashlight, I saw a shell-less egg in the litter under the perp's roost. As soon as she could see, she was ready to jump down and feast!

Wicked girl! I caught her before she could do the deed and gave the unfortunate egg a proper burial.

OK now what? I have a few ideas:

• Put the perp in chicken jail with a bucket nest, salted with a ceramic egg
• Same as above, but with a mustard egg
• Build roll-away nest boxes that trap eggs behind a wall, protecting them
• "Send her to Kentucky"

I could use some advice!