Every day, in the paddock hen house, it’s a race to see who will get the newly laid eggs – me or the magpies. Cunning and clever corvids are adept at stealing eggs from other birds. They steal goose eggs but, since they are very heavy, they smash them with their beaks and suck out the contents. The hen eggs are lighter to carry and we find the shells shattered some way from the paddock hen house. The only way to beat them is to be more cunning than them. I saw a hen sitting and closed her in the house this morning

I checked on her regularly until I heard the loud clicking noises that told me she had laid her egg. When I opened up the house I found two eggs. Well done girls. 2 – 0 to me.