Advice hopefully BEFORE I have a problem:

[LittleFeat]

The last few days I've noticed a few eggs will get cracked a little. Not sure yet if it's from getting bumped or if someone is pecking them. I typically have to leave for work in the mornings before I can collect the eggs and I'm worried one of my hens might realize just how tasty they are. I only have 2 nest boxes for 5 hens and use shavings in the boxes. This morning I had two soft-shelled eggs in the poop under the roosts and 1 normal egg although cracked on top of the nest box just on the wood. Yes they can and sometimes do get on top of the boxes. I do think the soft-shelled was just a freak occurrence and not related at all. I do plan to put a deeper layer of shavings in the boxes for better padding.

Do you think I might have the start of an egg eating problem and if so what might I try to do to nip it. The one hen I suspected of pecking one egg, didn't totally crush it or eat it and at this point I think she probably just pecked it when preparing the nesting box for her own turn to lay and egg and it was already in there.

Any possible advice to maybe prevent this from turning into an egg-eating problem. I'm really worried as these are pets and I'd really have a hard time culling her if that is the typical solution. I also wouldn't want to pass the problem on to someone else. Thanks for any advice!

 

[PunkinPeep]

If they didn't eat the soft shelled eggs you found, then i would guess that they're not eating eggs.

If you do discover that they're eating eggs, wooden eggs can be helpful to retrain them. Wooden eggs are very disappointing.

Definitely make sure there's plenty of padding in the nest box, but i'm guessing you're o.k.

 

[ADozenGirlz]

Two nesting boxes are enough for 5 hens. Is there a neighbor you could ask to stop by mid-morning to gather eggs for you? (Perhaps in exchange for some nice Farm Freshies for the trouble?). It's a shame to lose eggs even if it's unintentional by the hens.

 

[LittleFeat]

Quote:
No that's not really an option to have someone else gather them other than my son could somedays depending on his college/work schedule (and memory

)!! I have thought about opening the coop first thing in the morning when I get up so maybe some will start laying earlier as they do seem to start laying as soon as the group is out and they can quietly go back in. If they start earlier, I can gather some before I leave. There's only one hen that I'm a little worried about and I thought maybe if I get the first eggs out then when she goes in to lay hers, she just do her thing and then leave. I guess I'll have to watch what happens a little longer.

Maybe I'm just over-thinking it but it just seems like once they learn how good they taste, it would be very hard to stop it. Oh PunkinPeep I will try the wooden eggs. I do have 2 golf balls in each box and wondered if I should remove them now that they all have started laying and know the drill!

 

[PunkinPeep]

Quote:
I tried taking my porcelain (it's what was available) eggs out of the nests, and i noticed that my girls suddenly started all wanting to go in the same nest box (which makes for quite a traffic jam). I put them back in - one in each box - and they started using all the boxes again. So i think i'm going to leave them in there. The benefit of these is that they look just like an egg unless you look really close. So it might be that my girls pecked at those first and figured out quickly that eggs were no good too peck at.

I hope. I haven't seen anyone eating eggs, so i guess my fakers might have more than one purpose. I even had a shelless one in the nest box that somebody pecked at but didn't eat.

 

[bantiesrule]

Quote:
If you are getting soft-shelled eggs, I would get some oyster shells in there for them.

 

[LittleFeat]

Quote:
If you are getting soft-shelled eggs, I would get some oyster shells in there for them.

They do have a large dog bowl full of oyster shell. I don't know if soft-shell is more frequent when they first start laying, but my 5th chicken and the longest to start, just started to lay. The other 4 have been laying nice hard-shelled eggs. AND yesterday my first to start and most consistent layed a HUGE egg. It was probably 15% bigger than a store-bought, extra large egg.

 

[skittle]

i found that my chikens needed grit when i got a soft shell
my chickens didnt have the enough stones in their crop to brake down the food to get the nutrionts from the food
dont kno if this will help you at all tho

 

[LittleFeat]

Quote:
They have grit. I've been giving the free choice chick grit since they were babies getting treats. Then switched them to adult chicken grit.
All seemed fine tonight when we got home. A total of 5 nice eggs from 5 chickens. Just the one cracked one that was on top of the nesting box. I don't think it was cracked due to pecking. I think it just cracked cause it was laid on bare wood. So today counting the 2 soft-shelled that's 7 eggs from 5 hens. The soft-shelled were probably the same hen and during the night as they were both together and directly under the roost. I'm not particularly worried about the soft-shelled eggs, it's the couple of eggs I've found over the weekend that had what looked like a single pecked hole in each.

Thanks everyone for your ideas. I guess since the eggs weren't eaten, I'll quit worrying about it at least for now.