Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[PapaChaz]

Is there anyway to break a hen from eating eggs? Fortunately, it is one of my EEs and not my AMs. Will the nests that have the eggs roll out in a tray prevent this? I caught her in the act and I hope this is the only one that I have doing this. Can't really rehome her because my grandson picked her out.

yeah if you fix the nest so the egg will roll out of reach it'll stop her from being able to reach it. Do you have oyster shell available to them? sometimes they eat eggs because they want the shell

 

[XxMingirlxX]

Is there anyway to break a hen from eating eggs?  Fortunately, it is one of my EEs and not my AMs.  Will the nests that have the eggs roll out in a tray prevent this?  I caught her in the act and I  hope this is the only one that I have doing this.  Can't really rehome her because my grandson picked her out.

Put lots of golf balls in the nest so that she will end up trying to eat a golf ball and give up

 

[christine9]

Put lots of golf balls in the next so that she will end up trying to eat a golf ball and give up

x2
I've done this with success.

 

[cgmaster]

I was looking at the ABC's breeder directory and found out there is a breeder listed in safford, I live in thatcher which is in the same valley and I just thought it was cool to find out

 

[Sylvester017]

Is there anyway to break a hen from eating eggs? Fortunately, it is one of my EEs and not my AMs. Will the nests that have the eggs roll out in a tray prevent this? I caught her in the act and I hope this is the only one that I have doing this. Can't really rehome her because my grandson picked her out.

Try whatever methods you can think of for breaking her. We collect our eggs the moment we hear the egg songs from our hens - their coop is about 10 steps from the kitchen sliding door so we always keep it open a bit even during winter so we can hear the songs. We immediately collect the freshly layed egg to not tempt them to eat their eggs. (We only have 5 hens). If you use a rolling tray be sure it has the fine grate in front so the eggs don't get pecked by curious beaks. Chickens test everything curiously with their beaks and if the pecking breaks the egg shell they get a taste of the egg and you'll usually have a very difficult time breaking them of the habit. Our BW Amer is a klutzy girl and we've found the ends of her eggs sometimes cracked when they hit the nestbox floor. Once we saw her step on and crack her own egg getting out of the nestbox - Amers are such kooky spooky klutzy jittery (but sweet) birds and she's no exception. She's cracked her shells on accident stepping on them or dropping on the hard nestbox bottom but she's never eaten them. We add a lot of straw in the nestboxes but the chickens love to scratch to the hard bottom of the box before dropping their layed egg - go figure chickens! If your EE continues this bad habit she'll destroy all flockmates' layed eggs and you may have no choice but to isolate (not fair to her) or rehome her. She won't be worth keeping as a pet or for eggs because chickens are flock birds and she won't do well isolated and she won't be worth keeping for eggs since she eats them. But before this drastic step try everything you can think of to protect/collect eggs before she gets to them.

It's interesting that it was your EE that's the egg eater because my friend also had an EE egg eater - maybe an EE characteristic? or not enough protein? We feed our BW Amer shrimp and fish to add extra protein to her diet and we've never had issues of egg eating.

We have an older Silkie that will lay soft shell eggs toward the end of her laying cycle and once the soft shell broke and she enjoyed her own egg! But it only happened once. In fact that was the reason we began removing eggs the moment we knew they're layed in case of a soft shell or a cracked leaking shell so the chickens aren't tempted to explore, peck, or taste them.

Don't know how old your grandson is but he may have a lesson to learn in life here. How worth it is it to you to eventually lose all your eggs to one egg eater who will teach the others to do the same when they see her doing it. GL!

 

[JackieandChicks]

Help

Pullet or cockerel? December chick....

I know what I think, but I just can't tell with these lavenders!

 

[PapaChaz]

Help

Pullet or cockerel? December chick....

I know what I think, but I just can't tell with these lavenders!

4 to 5 months and no comb to speak of yet? I'm guessing pullet. Which means it's probably a rooster, HAHA

 

[HugHess]

4 to 5 months and no comb to speak of yet? I'm guessing pullet. Which means it's probably a rooster, HAHA

Looks like a pullet to me...

 

[JackieandChicks]

Nothing...yes "she's" on my couch, I was trying for a picture. "She's" terrified. Excuse the cat hair LOL!

 

[Sylvester017]

Help

Pullet or cockerel? December chick....

I know what I think, but I just can't tell with these lavenders!

4 to 5 months and no comb to speak of yet? I'm guessing pullet. Which means it's probably a rooster, HAHA

Looks like a pullet to me...

My Blue Amer pullet was hatched end of Nov and looks just like your Lavender except of course ours has the darker head/neck feathers. So let us know when yours turns out to be a cockerel