Chicken eggs buried in plant pots

[MrBen]

This is really odd. Whilst repotting some trees at the weekend I found several whole chicken eggs buried in each about 4-5 inches down in the large plant pots. They certainly weren't there last September and we don't have kids messing about on either side of us either.

Can anyone tell me if this is:

- A sign of white witchcraft

- An animal of some kind (fox?)

- A cuckoo

- Or perhaps it's that pheasant?

I'll take any but the first please. I considered trick or treaters but then we found one in the back garden too. Help!

[ibilly99]

It's hen activity.

[womanofdulwich]

I know foxes like eggs. But so do rats!

[DulwichFox]

Could be a fox.

If you Google 'burying hens eggs'

you will find you are not alone...

Fox Not it was not me. :))

PS.

It has just occured to me that recently I found 2 holes in large planters.

again about 4"-5" deep.

Could be some creature has recovered somthing they buried previously.

[maxxi]

A squirrel with a nut allergy

[MrBen]

A squirrel has been suggested and we have a few on our street. But I've yet to see one carrying around large chicken egg. Foxes are looking like the most likely and if so I'm impressed.

"So they can climb fences!" gasped one poster? Well thats nothing to perfectly burying a perfect, whole, date stamped chicken egg 5 inches down without disturbing the soil surface.

[Alan Medic]

Mr.Ben, when have you ever heard of 'kids messing about' who bury eggs in plant pots? You need to start a family I think.

[Razors]

Its obvious, the Sceptics did it,(Yanks). The poor fools do not know what an aubergine is, and so they decided to grow their own Egg Plants! Simps.

[woodrot]

clowns are well known for their strange cuckoo like reproductive habits.

[Gidget]

Want to know where the foxes are getting the eggs. Surely they don't break in to a hen run, kill the hen and then carefully carry off the eggs?

[MrBen]

Good point, Gidget. Foxes are smart (do we all know that now?) but I've yet to see one in a stripey jumper break into a standing wheelie bin. The eggs were date stamped which means shop bought. And who chucks whole eggs into the bin on a regular basis?

One wildlife forum suggests that urban fox lovers actually leave chicken eggs out to feed the foxes.

[red devil]

What was the date stamped on the eggs?, that will at least tell you approximately when they were put in the pots...

[MrBen]

Alas - red ink was too blurry to read.

I've just spoken to a man with a beard. He reckons that foxes value eggs for a protein hit and so cache them for lean times.

[Salsaboy]

Without disturbing the soil? Hmmm doubtful.

[Michael Palaeologus]

Chinese Foxes. They like 100 year old eggs.

[maxxi]

British foxes. They like tea eggs (check for marbling).

[Annette Curtain]

Have they hatched yet?

[Razors]

Daddy Fox planning an Easter Egg hunt for the cubs.

[katie1997]

Scottish foxes. They like deep-fried eggs/eggs wrapped in sausage meat and breadcrumbs.

[Razors]

Greek foxes - don't trust banks, saving for the future.

[Gill in Bath]

Hi Mr Ben, this is a long shot but did you ever get to the bottom of the hens egg in plant pot mystery?

I realise it was ages ago but I found an egg buried in a pot of compost today. Rather un-nerving and weird.

Yours was the only related item that google found. and even more strangely I used to live in Dulwich a long time ago.

I hope it wasn't something witchy. Gill

[maxxi]

Limnanthes douglasii

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Limnanthes douglasii

Family: Limnanthaceae

Genus: Limnanthes

Limnanthes douglasii is a species of annual flowering plant in the family Limnanthaceae (meadowfoam) commonly known as poached egg plant or Douglas' meadowfoam. It is native to California and Oregon, where it grows in wet, grassy habitat, such as vernal pools and spring meadows springing from buried hens eggs - often seen in plant pots in this form. The plant was collected by the Scottish explorer and botanist David Douglas, who worked on the west coast of America in the 1820s and its seed was at first thought to be the abandoned hoard of secretive foxes.(12)

[Sue]

Gill in Bath Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Hi Mr Ben, this is a long shot but did you ever

> get to the bottom of the hens egg in plant pot

> mystery?

> I realise it was ages ago but I found an egg

> buried in a pot of compost today. Rather

> un-nerving and weird.

> Yours was the only related item that google found.

> and even more strangely I used to live in Dulwich

> a long time ago.

> I hope it wasn't something witchy. Gill

xxxxxxx

Foxes bury raw eggs.

I found one a year or so back buried in a pot in my front garden.

What I couldn't understand, though, was where the fox had got the egg from in the first place, as it was stamped :)

If you google "foxes bury eggs" a whole load of stuff comes up :)

[MrBen]

Hi Gill in Bath. Yes I eventually solved it. Douglas meadow foam? Interesting but I'm guessing those eggs don't come with a Tesco date stamp. I asked around and it seems there is a bonkers middle aged woman nearby who feeds foxes fresh raw hens eggs. Foxes know it's a major protein hit and so look for a larder to bury them for when times get hard.

Whatever you think about foxes, feeding wild animals is generally wrong. Canadians don't toss out burgers to feed the bears, nor does anyone with their marbles leave out cereal for the rats.

I just figured this lady was lonely or mad or perhaps just misguided.

This being the EDF , a million swivel eyed loons will no doubt ckme on to say I'm wrong.

[Devonshire]

I watched a fox bury a couple of eggs in my window boxes a few months ago - I was rather surprised!