How to catch a predator (or at least tick it off)

[Beefy]

my chickens are laying eggs in the yard and ive been collecting them but leaving behind some faux eggs to keep them laying there where i know about already. well, first i put out a golfball. went back next day and there was a golfball and 1 egg. Thats all the regular golfballs i have tho, so this time when i took the egg i replaced it with one of the plastic golfballs full of air. went the next day and that one had been collapsed-something had tried to eat it, lol. that night i put out one of those plastic easter eggs, a yellow one. when i went to check next morning it was gone. weird. so next i put out a green one and an orange one. went back and the orange one was gone. went back today and the green one was open but still there. so i'm thinking-- waht if i take one of these plastic eggies and fill'r up with pepper! do you think that would teach the little critter a lesson? the regular golfball is still there, they dont mess with it-


its not any of my animals, they stay inside at night.

 

[Alice]

Beefy, can ya' put up a spy camera when you put out the pepper laced egg? I'd like to see that. YouTube would love to see that. Woops...PETA would really love to see that...

Nevermind.

Alice

 

[Double A]

Do you have any idea what kind of critter you're after? (Make sure it's not the Easter bunny - don't want disappointed kids.)

Do you have any type of live (box style) traps you can set? Do you think you are getting enough eggs, or do you think it is stealing those too before you can collect them?

If the critter isn't bothering live chickens, maybe you should just go get some more golf balls (you can often buy some used from a golf course) since it doesn't seem to like those.

 

[cfpinz]

Put a habanero in one.

cfpinz

 

[buckwheat_87]

Put poison in one or put one where you can see it threw a window and have some fun target practice. :lol: :lol:

 

[milesvb]

Put a habanero in one.

cfpinz

I don't know about that suggestion. It's too dry out Beefy's way to risk some small varmint bursting into flame.

 

[Lammie]

Having a moment, there. Sorry.

 

[Lammie]

Beefy, I bought a glass egg. They are supposed to shatter when the snake tries to swallow it. Well, mine disappeared. I found it again in the front yard under a bush after a hard rain. It was intact but it smelled HORRIBLE! I took it in the house with the intentions of returning it to the hen house, and when I came back in it had stuck up the whole house. Took me a while to figure out what was causing it. I finally traced it to that glass egg. Something must have swallowed it and vomitted it back up. EEWWW! :shock:

I use golf balls to encourage the chickens to lay in the nesting box. In fact, I have silkies, and they are good brooders. I had one that was sitting on a golf ball. I moved it to another nesting box, and she moved to where it was. She sat on it for so long she started losing feathers until I removed it entirely.

I have thought about putting a fishing hook on a line in a fake egg. Do that and see what you come up with. Post pictures!

 

[Just Curious]

I have thought about putting a fishing hook on a line

I was losing chicks one year... Just in the early evening and used some hooks on 30 lb. test line with a small chunk of meat.... Whatever it was came in that evening picked up the bait, rolled over the retaining fence and left with the hook... Snapped the line....
But whatever it was never came back!
I personally never like to use poisons... Never know what is going to chew on the dead carcass...