I broke my egg eater!!!! woo hoo!!

Cloverleaf Farm

Bearded Birds are Best
11 Years
Sep 16, 2008
10,368
151
328
Levan, UT
I have a Salmon Faverolle hen that has been eating her own eggs (nobody else's, just hers) for at least 5-6 months...she went through a phase of shell-less eggs, which started the problem, her shell quality is much better, though still a little thin, so it's still easy for her to break through them. I was at my wits end, and was having the dreaded "do you want to sell her or eat her" conversation with my son...anyway, through a suggestion I read on here, I filled an egg shell with liquid soap, sealed it up with wax and gave it to her...she ate it! I don't think she ate the soap, as the shavings underneath were very wet, but she appreciated the free shell meal...anyway, I have collected 6 eggs from her since then!! I haven't found any partially-eaten shells in her enclosure (she is penned seperately now with her "man" so she doesn't teach the youngsters about eating eggs)...the liquid soap isn't definitive, as I also increased kitchen scraps and greens (just in case) at the same time. But thought I'd share with you all that IT IS POSSIBLE!!!
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Great to hear. I will have to try that at I have been dealing with the same problem for awhile. Have not been successful at breaking the habit. Thanks and Great Job on defeating the egg eating chicken.
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I'll have to try this. I've had chickens for a year now and NEVER had this problem. I added 2 White Leghorn pulletts to the mix after they got large enough to defend themselves from the older girls. I've been getting 4-5 eggs a day out of my 5 that are laying. Last night there were 2 intact eggs in the nest, one of which had sticky egg remains all over it. There were also pieces of shell in the nest and on the floor under the nesting box. I felt the nest for evidence of egg content, but didn't find anything sticky other than what was on the other intact egg.
My first thought is that it's one of the White Leghorns, but I can't be sure. I leave for work at 6am and don't get home til after 6pm, so I can't collect the eggs during the day. I guess I'll have to remove the Leghorns as a first step and see what happens. In the meantime, anyone got easy plans for a nest that allows the eggs to roll into a safe compartment?
 
I read a post a while back that suggested taking an old egg out of the incubator (a day 18 cull) and put that in the nest for her to eat. Delish!
 
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Battery hens are kept in slanted cages, so all the commotion of eight legs in one square foot would knock the egg down to the collecting area, where they cant reach it. This would work for our happy, loved birds if it weren't for the nesting material. I'll bet someone can work around that and come up with something.....
 
My grandfather told me once to stop a eggeater hen put her in a cage by herself and feed her two eggs cracked in a bowl ( not the shell)a day nothing else for one week and she will get tired of eating eggs.I tried this with a RIR hen at the first of this year that started eating eggs and she has not eaten one since.It worked for me maybe it will work for you, hope this helps.
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