Cinnamon Queens and egg pecking

[MTP55]

About half of our flock is cinnamon queen. They lay lots of big brown eggs but the last two weeks they've decided to peck eggs and either eat the inside or just leave a spider web crack on the end. We have roll away nests. The other 30+ hens in our flock are fed the exact same thing and dont peck their eggs. And they dont have roll away boxes. Is it just the breed? I know I read somewhere the new hybrids need more protein or else they peck eggs and each other. We feed a complete layer mash and add grass, assorted small grains as a treat and sunflower seeds regularly.

 

[aart]

Are the flocks kept separately....or are the rollaway nests not rolling the eggs far enough away??

 

[MTP55]

Are the flocks kept separately....or are the rollaway nests not rolling the eggs far enough away??

Yes flocks are separated according to age. That was my thought initially so I removed the astroturf mat that came with them and replaced with plywood and cleaned any crud out of the bin where the eggs go. I guess it could be that larger eggs aren't making it through the slot fast enough. This weekend I might try to add another two boxes of a different type to see if that changes anything.

 

[aart]

Yes flocks are separated according to age. That was my thought initially so I removed the astroturf mat that came with them and replaced with plywood and cleaned any crud out of the bin where the eggs go. I guess it could be that larger eggs aren't making it through the slot fast enough. This weekend I might try to add another two boxes of a different type to see if that changes anything.

Have you tested the 'roll'?
Pics of your nest might help garner some solutions.

 

[MTP55]

Have you tested the 'roll'?
Pics of your nest might help garner some solutions.

They used to roll fine. I'll check it out when I get home from work. They're nestomatic boxes. Last week was really bad we lost four dozen over a week. I added a Flock Block and it seems to have curbed their mischievous enthusiasm so we only had half as many eggs broken.

 

[aart]

They're nestomatic boxes.

Like this:
https://www.premier1supplies.com/p/...MIur_C1c_z4wIVwcDACh0poArLEAYYASABEgJ7ZPD_BwE

I wonder if the trough is too small, it gets full and eggs are easy to reach from inside nest?

How many CQ's, how old are they, how many nests??

 

[MTP55]

Thatd be correct. 33 total hens. Five boxes. Theyve been laying since January. That's why I thought it was odd that this was suddenly an issue. They only like to use three though so I thought maybe I'd hang another couple somewhere else.

 

[aart]

Thatd be correct. 33 total hens. Five boxes. Theyve been laying since January. That's why I thought it was odd that this was suddenly an issue. They only like to use three though so I thought maybe I'd hang another couple somewhere else.

Pretty hard to put fake eggs in a roll away.
Was discussed at length at one time, can't remember any conclusions...
..my thought was to take one of those hard plastic eggs from TSC, cut it in half lengthwise and glue a half on the liners.

 

[MTP55]

So now theyve graduated from eating all the eggs to only eating two but still peck the ends of some. Just enough to make the egg trash. I did buy one of those $10 OSB nests from TSC just to experiment with. I out two fake eggs in it and a couple hens lay in it. No eggs pecked or eaten so far. Knock on wood.