Egg eater question

[audrey02026]

I have found the sticky yellow yolk remnats more than a few times over the past few months. So today I go to collect the eggs and I have 6 in the same nest but it's not the usual nestbox they lay in. anyway there was deninatly a eaten egg/eggs because all the other eggs have the yolk on them. My question is if I had a egg eater problem wouldnt all the eggs have been eaten? Do you think that maybe it was an accidental break and then they just eat that?? It has happened a few times that I have found the sticky yolk on the eggs. I have 5 younger birds that are just laying age a couple weeks ago and I have I think maybe two that just started to lay...i'm guessing because I keep getting two smaller eggs than my usual eggs. Problem is even with the new layers I only get about 7-9 eggs a day same as I always did.

 

[1muttsfan]

Sometimes when a lot of hens lay in the same box eggs that fall onto the other eggs already layed in the box will break. They may be only eating eggs that have already broken, not unbroken ones - at least not yet. Have you tried putting wooden eggs or golf balls in your boxes to encourage the hens to use them all?

 

[mickey328]

Our 6 hens all seem to use the same box as well. Most days there's no problem because I'm able to gather them up frequently. On Wed I was away all day and came home to 5 of them. Fortunately, none were broken but for some reason they were all poopy. Normally the eggs are clean or just have a bit of down, bedding or a tiny spot of poo that I can scratch off with a fingernail.

Is there any way you can arrange for someone to gather them every couple (or so) hours?

 

[audrey02026]

No I haven't thought about putting fake eggs in other boxes....ill try that thank you. I do usually check a few times a day usually before work, on my lunch hour and when I get home and then again before I lock them up for the night. but there are days I can't make it home for lunch and thats when I seem to have the issues.

 

[audrey02026]

Thank you both for your replies