Chickens Eating Eggs

[the simple life]

Here is the thing, if you start giving chickens all kinds of table food although it may be good for us it may not be good for them.
If you give your chickens a ton of fruit and vegetables every day where are they getting all protein they need?
I don't think bread has any nutritional value for chickens at all.

There have been several threads on here that adamantly oppose feeding cat food to chickens because its not good for them and I have seen that many other times on other poultry sites.
I never understand why people feed their animals feed that is made specifically for another animal.

According to a list on this forum chickens are also lactose intolerant so that is something else to be avoided.
I don't give my chickens too much people food, they free range and I buy the best feed I can get my hands on as well as black oil sunflower seed and oyster shell and aside from some yogurt, oatmeal and occasional corn on the cob when we have it I don't go overboard with the people food.
I do like pumpkins as a natural dewormer.

Poultry feed is designed specifically for their needs and they do fine on it, its when you start throwing in too much table food that you cause vitamin, mineral and protein imbalances and then people start posting wondering why their chickens are sick or won't lay.
Just because its good for you doesn't mean they can handle it in large doses, they can get sick from too much of any vitamin or mineral.
That is actually the problem with the cat food, too much of a good thing can be bad.
You can give them most any table food in small doses, just like cracked corn or scratch, its a treat and should not make up more than 10 percent of their diet.

Also, I have never heard of dog food being good for chickens.

Here are some links from this site.
Thread discussing the good and bad of feeding people food to the chickens
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=21530

List of treats: There was some debate on the catfood

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=2593-Treats_Chart

This is from DLhumnicorn our resident expert on toxic items for chickens:
* Regarding feeding CAT FOOD to chickens,

the following is from DLHunicorn in response to the listing of cat food in this Treats Chart: (A word to the wise, and thank you, DLHunicorn)

"You all know how I feel on cat food and I have posted the links and reasoning behind my objections several times ...it can potentially be detrimental to your birds health and even deadly in the right circumstances and for this reason I feel it should be left off the chart (as when you put it on it is as if you are condoning its use) I will repost here one of the sources for my objection:
http://www.omri.org/Amino_acids_livestock.html
..."While it is nutritionally essential, methionine excesses are far more toxic to poultry than similar excesses of tryptophan, lysine, and threonine (National Research Council, 1994). Force feeding methionine to excess can result in death to chicks (National Research Council, 1994). A dosage of 2 g / mature cat / day (20 to 30 g / kg dry diet) for 20 days induces anorexia, ataxia, cyanosis, methemoglobinemia and Heinz body formation resulting in hemolytic anemia (Maede, 1985). ..."





http://www.poultryhelp.com/toxicplants.html
Toxic Plants

and here are some more sources for toxicity:
http://dlhunicorn.conforums.com/index.c … 1165263379

http://msucares.com/pubs/infosheets/is1214.htm
(Feed Chickens Properly)

here are some of my collected articles on nutrition :
http://dlhunicorn.conforums.com/index.c … 1157992073

http://dlhunicorn.conforums.com/index.c … snutrition
(factors contributing to nutritional disorders)"

 

[TDB]

Yeah more protein would help. try laying crumbles and oyster shells maybe even a little grit

 

[Jim41]

Thanks for all the info sorry i havent replyed sooner but have been really busy. I feed purinia layena crumbles and pellts mixed also they have oyster shell grit and a scoop of scratch a day. the chickens are defenitley the egg eaters i have seen them eatting the eggs, and find shells in the nests. Are some breeds worse at this or is it common with all chickens?

 

[Imp]

You can also darken the nest area with some curtains. Some people have had success with filling blown out egg shells with mustard, horseradish or liquid soap. I broke mine I think mostly cause I rearranged the coop and added buckets for nests. Good luck

Imp

 

[jim s]

Hi Jim 41. I have the same problem. I was just about to post and saw yours. I did a search on BYC and found three threads that were good. Like has been stated, darken the nesting boxes, give them eggs with hot stuff in it, and cull if needed. I have tried the first two and the problem is way past culling a couple chickens. I don't know what to do. Protein is not a problem. The feed I use is good, oyster shells, layer crumbles. The only thing I have not tried is dish soap in the eggs. I am getting pretty good at getting the egg out with a syringe, putting hot stuff inside and waxing the hole back up. I use a 30cc syringe from the feed store. They eat them right up though, nothing left. My saving grace is that I have about 24 hens in the coop and get 15 eggs or so a day, more than I can use. They probably eat 2-3 eggs a day before I can get to them. I work full time, so it is once in the morning for me. I just want to solve the problem so it doesn't get worse. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[the simple life]

Find the offenders, go out and check on them several times a day, especially in the morning and get ahold of all the ones that have yoke on their beaks.
Put them in a seperate area, pen etc. do not let them run with the flock.
Feed them a high protein diet and remove any eggs they lay right away.
I have found that eventually they stop eating them, it seems like after a couple of weeks they forget the whole thing.
Sometimes though a hen will get stressed out about being removed from the coop and won't lay any eggs during her lock up and thats not a bad thing either, she can't eat them if she isn't laying them and after a couple of weeks she forgets.
When I think its time to see if they are rehabilitated I put a fresh egg in with them, I just set it down and leave the area.
They don't bother with it for the whole day until I come back and remove it.
I release them back into the flock and continue to monitor all their beaks for yolk until I just don't see anymore offenders for a whole week usually by then you can be sure they have been broken of it.
You can try all kinds of suggestions but its hit or miss with alot of them, chickens can be unpredictable.
Egg eating is usually a result of boredom, lousy weather keeping them in the run or whatever and darkening the nest boxes is to encourage egg laying, it won't stop egg eating.