Posted on 03 Aug 2014
Hi Bekah. I have had this problem too!
You can try and change their behaviour. Have you tried placing dummy eggs in the nest boxes to encourage them to lay in there. If they are like ours ,they fight over the "favourite" nest box, even though they have a choice of 8!
Failing that ,check the nest boxes are mite free as that might be a reason they are avoiding them.
The only other alternative is fencing which is very expensive and defeats the object of "free range!"
Just been speaking to another keeper this morning who says her dog sniffs the eggs out in the hedges! Get a dog???
Good luck
Jan
