I have 1 Barred Rock hen that was an '08 chick and 3 Rhode Island Reds that were '09 chicks. I've consistently gotten 3-4 eggs each day from my girls. One girl temporarily had an issue laying outside the boxes, but that only lasted for about 2 weeks and was remedied by adding an additional laying box. I've got 4 hens and 3 laying boxes - I usually find 2 eggs in one box, and 1 egg in each of the other boxes. I've got a glass egg that I move from box to box and I notice that depending on where the glass egg is, that determines where the 2 eggs end up. (I can't figure out if 3 hens each have their own box and 1 follows the glass egg around, or if there are 2 that always lay in the same box while the other 2 just find an available box to lay in.)
My girls are free range during the day and are free to come and go in the coop to lay as needed. With the nice weather and their extended roaming, their feed is limited to a much smaller amount of layer mash and cracked corn than they normally receive during the winter. (They also receive bread and some scrap vegetables, but I try to let them do their own thing for the most part.)
I generally collect eggs at night when I close them in, but if there are eggs when I let them out in the morning I will grab them so they don't sit around all day.
This morning when I let the girls out, there were no eggs in the boxes - not unusual. When I went to close them in tonight all 4 girls were already inside as usual. I spotted 2 eggs in one box and was a little disappointed that production was off for the day. I checked the other boxes and noticed that one looked as though the shavings were wet. Upon further investigation, it was YOLK!
No shell, and no other remains. I've read that most egg-eaters will consume the ENTIRE egg...so immediately I was eyeing each of my girls hoping I would see one with yolk dripping out of her beak so I would know exactly who it is! No such luck.
My husband (who puts up with me and my chickens, but is not their biggest fan) said that you have to kill whoever is doing it because she won't stop.
I, on the other hand, would like to avoid this at all costs.
This is the first time I've ever encountered this behavior since I started raising chickens in 2008. (My first 2008 flock had 5 hens, but sadly I lost 4 of them the following summer to a fisher. None of them had this problem and none of my new girls had exhibited this behavior...until now.) Is it strange that an egg-eater would start this behavior after a year or two of not doing it? Should I wait to see if the behavior continues, or should immediate action be taken? How do I go about figuring out which one it is? Is the behavior cureable?
Any advice would be much appreciated!!!
My girls are free range during the day and are free to come and go in the coop to lay as needed. With the nice weather and their extended roaming, their feed is limited to a much smaller amount of layer mash and cracked corn than they normally receive during the winter. (They also receive bread and some scrap vegetables, but I try to let them do their own thing for the most part.)
I generally collect eggs at night when I close them in, but if there are eggs when I let them out in the morning I will grab them so they don't sit around all day.
This morning when I let the girls out, there were no eggs in the boxes - not unusual. When I went to close them in tonight all 4 girls were already inside as usual. I spotted 2 eggs in one box and was a little disappointed that production was off for the day. I checked the other boxes and noticed that one looked as though the shavings were wet. Upon further investigation, it was YOLK!
My husband (who puts up with me and my chickens, but is not their biggest fan) said that you have to kill whoever is doing it because she won't stop.
This is the first time I've ever encountered this behavior since I started raising chickens in 2008. (My first 2008 flock had 5 hens, but sadly I lost 4 of them the following summer to a fisher. None of them had this problem and none of my new girls had exhibited this behavior...until now.) Is it strange that an egg-eater would start this behavior after a year or two of not doing it? Should I wait to see if the behavior continues, or should immediate action be taken? How do I go about figuring out which one it is? Is the behavior cureable?
Any advice would be much appreciated!!!
