Eating her eggs

[samanthamick]

I have one chicken eating her own egg, does anyone know what causes this or what I can do to stop it?

 

[Captain Carrot]

Hens don't start out as egg eaters. It usually starts when a bit of bedding gets stuck to an egg, the hens pecks at this to see what it is, the egg cracks and the hen discovers that eggs are delicious.

She will then start eating any eggs she comes across.

It's never happened to me so I can't say from experience, but I've heard one way of stopping this. You take a normal egg and blow it, (one hole in both engds of the egg, you then blow through one hole to remove the white and yoke.) you then fill this egg with the hottest, nastiest thing in your kitchen. This could be a mixture of chilly sauce, mustard powder, or Thai curry sauce. you then plug the holes with candle wax and leave it in a nest box for the greedy hen to find. She'll soon get the message.

This reminds me of a friend who had a German Shepard, who chewed the hall carpet when he was out at work. He sprinkled ground black pepper over the carpet as a deterent, only to come home and find that the dog had EATEN the carpet.

 

[pride&joy]

I had always heard the best cure was the stew pot before they pass on their bad habits. But recently had a confirmed eater who stoped after I filled her pen and nest with fake eggs.

 

[kiwilady]

Hi, I have had a chook laid in the middle of the pen this morning, heaven knows why, and all the hens have eaten the egg. I have just blown an egg and am about to fill it with all of the above as per your advice, Have also put a fake egg in each next, just incase! Fingers crossed!

 

[colby318]

Chickens don't have heat receptors on their tongue so they can't taste the hotness of peppers. I've used horseradish (wasabi paste) dabbed on top of a golf ball. I haven't had a problem since and the guilty party probably had the cleanest sinuses for a day afterwards.

 

[kara_leigh]

Agreed. They can't taste hot pepper. I use cayenne powder and hot pepper flakes in my chicken feed to keep the dog and cats from eating it, but the chickens eat it without a problem.

I'm having this problem right now also. I hope you get her to stop!

 

[Coffeemama7]

I just read in that a lack of calcium carbonate (edible limestone) may be to blame. Add extra to their feed.

Baked, clean crushed egg shell also helps. It needs to not taste like the egg, so clean shell of inside contents.

Worth a try...

 

[brahmapapa]

I just read in that a lack of calcium carbonate (edible limestone) may be to blame. Add extra to their feed.

Baked, clean crushed egg shell also helps. It needs to not taste like the egg, so clean shell of inside contents.

Worth a try...

the biggest event leading to egg eating is an accidental broken egg that the chickens find and eat. once they have the taste for raw egg it can be difficult to stop, they will peck and break perfectly good eggs. feeding oyster shell supplies the necessary calcium. when i raised budgies for show years ago, we used to put small blocks of plaster in the breeding cages for them to eat, which provided calcium.

 

[brahmapapa]

I have one chicken eating her own egg, does anyone know what causes this or what I can do to stop it?

i had this problem years ago, i made false bottom nesting boxes. the bottoms were made of pine board, with legs at the four corners to raise it off the nestingbox bottom enough for eggs to fit underneath. i cut a hole in the board center large enough for the eggs to drop thru. i then lined the board with short pile carpet tapered to the hole which i cut thro. i stableized the loose carpet threads with a hot glue gun so hens didn't shred it. when a hen layed an egg it dropped thru the hole onto another piece of carpet where i could retrieve it. it was alot of work but it saved too many eggs to count, and after a while the offending hen forgot her taste for eggs and all was well.