Chickens may be eating their own eggs

[SusanJoM]

Okay, I'm not altogether sure this is happening, but I think it may be. I've been finding broken eggs in with the others in the nests. As soon as I found the first ones, I put out more oyster shell, but that was just a wild a** guess as to what the problem might be.

I have a neighbor who told me he burns his chickens' beaks to keep them from doing that, and I had to bite my tongue to keep from telling him how barbaric that sounded to me.

But....what should I be looking for and changing????

Any and all help will be appreciated (well except for telling me to burn their beaks....that's not possible.....)

Susan

 

[purplepoen]

I had the same problem. Oyster shell didn't work for me either. So I went to the craft store and picked up some ceramic eggs. I put them in their nest boxes and after a few pecks on those they realized it was useless and stopped. I leave the eggs in there all the time except to take them out and wash them once in a while. You can also try giving them a head of cabbage to keep them occupied for a few days at a time and they wont be bored enough to mess with them.
Hope this helps!
Good luck.

P.S. Someone also told me to clip their beaks and that just sounded too horrible, I would never do that to my girls.

 

[digitS']

Some folks cover the entrance to the nest boxes with curtains.

The hens are laying in the dark but that keeps them from eating eggs. I understand they learn not to be afraid to go inside the boxes and it works.

When I've had real problems, it was with eggs layed on the floor. The nest needs to be sacred and as comfortable as possible. An egg on the floor may just look like food.

Steve

 

[Attack Chicken]

I've seen this somewhere on here but Someone said if you take an egg and blow it out, then fill it with mustard and when they eat it they don't like mustard supposibly.

 

[Imp]

Had the same problem a couple weeks ago. I used practice golf balls(white) and ping pong balls(orange) the egg eating stopped immediately. Thanks to whoever originally posted this idea. I put about a dozen in the coop in their nests. Good Luck.

 

[SusanJoM]

Excellent ideas.
Thanks all.
I know there's a stash of golf balls somewhere around here.
I'll try them first.

Susan

 

[chixrus]

I've heard blowing the eggs and filling them with hot sauce or something similar works too

 

[YaYaBugaaawkSisters]

Did the golf balls, mustard / hot sauce filled eggs, and or ping pong balls work???

Just wondering...