Chickens are pecking eggs when we go to get them

[Tonya ledoux Stevens]

Our chickens are pecking at their eggs just when we go to get them is that normal?

 

[Hybridchucks]

sounds like egg eating.....that stinks.....

 

[Tonya ledoux Stevens]

What's egg eating

 

[Hybridchucks]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/six-tips-on-breaking-your-egg-eater.63022/ here you are....

 

[Circle W Farms]

Egg eating is where the chickens eat their eggs. They do it a lot of times because they don't have enough calcium. I would give them oyster shell in a separate container that they have access to all the time. You can also crush egg shells and use them too.

 

[Hybridchucks]

 

[GC-Raptor]

Our chickens are pecking at their eggs just when we go to get them is that normal?

Do the eggs have a hole on the end? If so you need more straw in the nest boxes.
The egg gets a small hole on the pointy end when it drops and hits the bottom of the nest box. GC

 

[FlyWheel]

Egg eating is where the chickens eat their eggs. They do it a lot of times because they don't have enough calcium. I would give them oyster shell in a separate container that they have access to all the time. You can also crush egg shells and use them too.

One thing about giving your chickens 'used' egg shells (this is especially important if they are already pecking at their eggs), is to make sure that what you give them is as unlike eggs as you can, otherwise they may put 2+2 together and figure out that eggs can be a treat, then you're really in trouble! Here's what i do;

1. I rinse out all the 'egg stuff' from the inside.
2. I 'bake' the shells at 200F. for ten minutes, this gets rid of any egg taste and makes the shells more brittle.
3. I grind them into the consistency of beach sand (I use one of those 'Magic Bullet' personal blenders for this).

This is usually enough, it would take a remarkably smart chicken to figure out that this 'sand' was once a shell filled with tasty egg. But just to be sure (and to make things easy for me) I also dump the ground shells in the bin with their regular oyster shell supplement. That way it all gets fed to them together and as far as they are concerned it's all oyster shell, they don't even know there's anything else in it.

You can also mix it with their feed if they are all laying.

 

[MeridianChick]

When my hens started pecking and eating eggs, I would take an empty eggshell and fill it with mustard so that the hens would stop. It worked fine.