BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[stryker]

Well, folks, I have an egg eater in my NN flock. I don't know who. I suspect it's my fault for not being prepared for them laying so early, and several eggs got laid outside of a nest box (and probably eaten).

Suggestions?

- Ant Farm

Mine lay outside of the nest boxes all the time.. Golfballs where ever you find the eggs even on the floor. I really have no idea.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Mine lay outside of the nest boxes all the time.. Golfballs where ever you find the eggs even on the floor. I really have no idea.

Thanks! I already had fake eggs in the boxes, but I think she started with one outside the box and then has started getting them in the box. I caught her with egg on her beak - it's Buffy. I found the article on six ways to break egg eating - I'd like to try these before either installing a roll out nest or culling.

Soooooo.... I just spent some quality time blowing eggs and using a syringe to fill them with mustard.

If I need to, I'll crate her, I'd just like to avoid it.

- Ant Farm

Edit to add: They're on Flock Raiser. I still have some Layer feed around, so I'll hang a second feeder with that as well. (They have access to oyster shell, but still...)

 

[ronott1]

Thanks! I already had fake eggs in the boxes, but I think she started with one outside the box and then has started getting them in the box. I caught her with egg on her beak - it's Buffy. I found the article on six ways to break egg eating - I'd like to try these before either installing a roll out nest or culling.

Soooooo.... I just spent some quality time blowing eggs and using a syringe to fill them with mustard.

If I need to, I'll crate her, I'd just like to avoid it.

- Ant Farm

Edit to add: They're on Flock Raiser. I still have some Layer feed around, so I'll hang a second feeder with that as well. (They have access to oyster shell, but still...)

calcium meal(Food Grade Diatomaceous earth) added to their feed will harden up the eggs quickly.

Look up the amount, but when needed I will mix in half a cup per 5 pound feeder.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

calcium meal(Food Grade Diatomaceous earth) added to their feed will harden up the eggs quickly.

Look up the amount, but when needed I will mix in half a cup per 5 pound feeder.

The eggs are actually plenty hard - but they're young and a few have laid outside the nest. Yesterday I found one that seemed to have been laid from the low roost in front of one of the nest boxes and it was cracked from falling on the coop floor. I suspect she found one cracked like this... But yep, trying to address any and all reasons that might drive her to this (besides her finding them yummy).

I have plenty of eggs, but that doesn't mean I want an egg eater in the flock...

- Ant Farm

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

Fire Ant Farm, What are you feeding? Are they getting any meat protein?

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Fire Ant Farm, What are you feeding? Are they getting any meat protein?

Regular feed (Flock Raiser). No meat protein. But I'm not sure how I'd do that - I'm not going to start cooking for my hens...

Edit: Sorry, didn't mean to sound short, I'm just frustrated and haven't had enough coffee yet...

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

Regular feed (Flock Raiser). No meat protein. But I'm not sure how I'd do that - I'm not going to start cooking for my hens...

Edit: Sorry, didn't mean to sound short, I'm just frustrated and haven't had enough coffee yet...

LOL

no you don't have to cook for your hens- but I guarantee they will go Apes^*& for raw hamburger- but you can try trout pellets or quality cat food (ie that actually has meat in it, not the cheap garbage made from corn and corn gluten meal). They might be reluctant at first, it might help to soak them, and you don't want to give too much- no more than 1-2% of their diet the eggs/meat can get off flavours. the literature says 1-5% can cause weird tastes so be careful if you are eating them or their eggs.
I did not have luck getting my chickens to eat cat/dog kibble, but they do get raw meat/bone sawdust, collected from the meat cutting industry. I don't feed raw poultry back to my poultry, they only get beef or pork raw. I don't feed raw poultry because of the possibility of transmitting chicken diseases (and not too much chance of that really anyway).
As far as raw beef or pork Cooking doesn't destroy prions anyway, if that's a concern..........if so just feed eggs but really they should be cooked so they don't recognize them as eggs.

I don't know if this will stop a confirmed egg eater, but others have found that by giving meat protein it has stopped feather picking. Again, not for all, but worth a try.
Of course the simplest thing is to remove the egg eater before the other chickens clue in that it's a tasty treat.

 

[ronott1]

All chickens are egg eaters.

My Father in Law announced that he had an egg eater then proceeded to kill any chicken he found that had egg on it's beak. All hens were dead within a week.

Chickens are opportunistic eaters (scavengers). Their normal behavior is to lay an egg and turn around and peck it. They are checking for viability of the egg--Will it hatch? If the egg breaks, the flock will run over and eat it.

Chickens do not have receptors for mustard so that will not work. Same for hot sauce(red pepper flakes have some nutrients though).

My advice is to forget about the evil egg eating hen(because they all are) and figure out why the egg is breaking. One of your hens may be laying eggs with a weak shell.

So:

Worm them and treat them for mites and lice
up the calcium and consider a vitamin with vitamin D in it
Feed them an animal protein source like calf mana.

Look into roll out nest boxes or change the current ones--more padding, change in orientation, curtains and etc.

 

[jbkirk]

All chickens are egg eaters.

My Father in Law announced that he had an egg eater then proceeded to kill any chicken he found that had egg on it's beak. All hens were dead within a week.

Chickens are opportunistic eaters (scavengers). Their normal behavior is to lay an egg and turn around and peck it. They are checking for viability of the egg--Will it hatch? If the egg breaks, the flock will run over and eat it.

Chickens do not have receptors for mustard so that will not work. Same for hot sauce(red pepper flakes have some nutrients though).

My advice is to forget about the evil egg eating hen(because they all are) and figure out why the egg is breaking. One of your hens may be laying eggs with a weak shell.

So:

Worm them and treat them for mites and lice
up the calcium and consider a vitamin with vitamin D in it
Feed them an animal protein source like calf mana.

Look into roll out nest boxes or change the current ones--more padding, change in orientation, curtains and etc.

I'm not trying to be disrespectful but we have friends that no matter what they did their chickens were serial egg eaters. Nothing worked to stop those chickens. Now If my chickens eat an egg tha'ts cracked I'm fine with it but when they start gorging themselves on any and all eggs, that is when they get invited to dinner.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

All very helpful input, comments, and insight (and please keep it coming).

I had read that chickens didn't like the taste of mustard - that's why I did that. I could also try filling them with soap.

The eggs coming out of this coop are quite strong shelled, but they are inexperienced and sometimes dropping them on the hen house floor, where they are cracked. I understand eating that. But then going into the nest box... Unfortunately I suspect a number of them have been laying outside the boxes altogether for a while - this is my fault somewhat, because they began laying so early (20 weeks, maybe earlier), and I wasn't prepared, and they didn't have nest boxes in their tractor at first. I'm trying to pull laid eggs as soon as I can (but I work during the day on week days). I'm going to also add layer feed in a second feeder (they already get Flock Raiser).

I just crated the obvious offender within the coop (after getting her freshly laid egg before she could peck at it) - there may be others (there was a little yellow on another hen's leg). But Buffy is the one with the most persistent behavior about it (constantly hovering and checking nest boxes and looking on the coop floor). So she may be the instigator. And my foot hurts and I can't deal with anything more complex. I could put in a rolling nest box, but they're already not always laying in the nest... But I may start shopping for those next.

For this particular flock, I'm not keeping them for eggs, and technically don't need their eggs. But it's a bad habit I don't want to encourage/allow, and what about when I want to hatch more?! I can't collect eggs to hatch if they eat them all...

I just had a brilliant idea - I'm going to fill blown eggs with Pick No More Lotion!

- Ant Farm