Brown Leghorn not laying...and egg eating chickens...HELP!

[newbeof4]

I have 4 girls and all but my leghorn have been laying for 3 weeks now. I am not sure why she hasnt started laying, we got them all at the same time. The only othe thing I can think of is if she is eating them as soon as she lays them. It seems that all 4 of my girls have started eating the 2nd egg of the day. They leave the 1st one alone and then eat the 2nd egg and leave the green one from the Americana alone....its weird....but we have never found a white one from the leghorn...I tried doing the mustard egg thing and have some wooden eggs in there too. I can't get rid of the chickens because they are my kids pets...HELP!

 

[rdport]

Can you catch the hen in question? If so, check and see if she is laying. As for them eating eggs. Can you gather more often? Do they have orster shell out? Does their boxes have plenty of hay, so the eggs don't crack? Hope you find an answer.

 

[bigspringshatchery]

Egg eating can be hard to break. I got one I had to remove from my flock. I can't break her. But she would only eat one color egg like yours. She wouldn't eat the dark brown eggs she wanted the light pink ones. You could try to pick out the egg eater or eaters and put them in a different pen and try to break em before the all of em start. Also if you can't find out who is eating. Look into roll away nest boxes. This is a link to one on here. https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=287684

 

[HeatherLynn]

Also try fake eggs. I used easter eggs and a couple marble eggs. I swear it works. My gals were eating at least one egg a day. I put those fakes in and suddenly the one who would not use the nest box started too. Whoever was eating eggs stopped. I had an egg from each gal just waiting for me. I have a teen who keeps doing it right now so the easter eggs are back in play again.

You might also make sure they are getting enough calcium and protein. A bit of scrambled egg or some cat food is always a nice protein treat.

 

[newbeof4]

Well I watched the second chicken lay for 2 days in a row and she pushes everything out from under her and then she stands up to lay the egg and it falls and cracks alittle. I don't know if that is why they eat it.....so I have just been grabbing them as soon as she lays....Non of our girls use the nesting boxes, so we just made some changes and put some wooded fake eggs in so we will see if they start using them....We also bought this big solid block of seeds and stuff....it said it would help with the need to peck and may help with caniblism. We will see how it works...As far the the brown leghorn not laying, still not one egg and she is probably 24 weeks old is that normal???

 

[newbeof4]

Just because I posted that last night she layed her first egg this morning!!

Althought she did lay it from the roosting bar so it broke on impact.....but YAY!! WE are in full production!