Eating their eggs

[lindalu]

My husband and I just bought 6 comet hens that are about a year old yesterday. They are in a shed temporarliy with straw. We are moving them in to our old chicken coop, we had chickens up until 2 years ago when the last one died.

The problem is they have laid eggs today but ate them all.
Is this something they will stop or did we get "taken" on our purchase?

 

[RoostersCrow]

Not a good sign but the stress of the move may be contributing. Settle them in their new digs, add some golf balls/ceramic eggs to peck at and see nothing happen and plenty of good food may set them back to right. Good luck.

 

[willheveland]

I think you may have bought someone elses problem.I think alot of egg eaters end up for sale or auctions if the owners don't have the heart to cook'em.
I'd try to take a few eggs and blow the egg out,then mix up a nasty hot sauce with hot mustard,chilli powder,cayenne pepper,ect... and put back in the egg.This may break them of their bad habit.Throw them together with golf balls or wooden eggs in their nest box. Will

 

[speedabug]

this is what I do you need to get some broken oyster shells and feed it to them with there normal food.After about 2 days they will stop eating their eggs.

 

[lindalu]

Thanks everyone, I will try the oyster shells, but I too am afraid too that I we bought a "pig in a poke", this is really disappointing.

 

[rufus]

We used to eat the egg eaters. We had large flocks and it worked for us.

However, after reading so many posts in this website, I have become convinced that they can be saved.

Build a nest box with a slight slant to the floor so that the egg rolls back out of reach of the hen. Seach for that subject on this website, it has been discussed before.

Also, someone mentioned that they had injected an egg with ipecac syrup and that stopped the egg eating.

However, egg eating is a sign of either overcrowding or a nutrional problem. Address these problems.

Rufus

 

[lindalu]

I BOUGHT SOME BROKEN OYSTER SHELLS TODAY, AND THEY LOVED THEM, WE DID GET 2 GOOD EGGS TODAY, ONE PECKED EGG AND ONE THEY ATE DURING THE DAY WHEN WE WEREN'T HOME. WE ONLY HAVE 6 HENS SO AT LEAST 4 LAYED. I ALSO PUT PLASTIC EGGS I HAD IN THEIR NESTS THEY HAVE PECKED AT THEM SOME, BUT THEY DID NOT LAY EGGS IN THE BOXES YET, JUST ON THE FLOOR OF THE COOP. SINCE THIS IS ONLY DAY 3 OF THEM BEING IN THERE NEW HOME WE WILL SEE HOW THE REST OF THE WEEK GOES. WE KNOW NOTHING OF THEIR PRIOR HISTORY.

THANKS FOR THE ENCOURAGEMENT, WE ARE GOING TO BUILD NEW BOXES ON A SLANT, WE JUST HAD MAKE-SHIFT ONES RIGHT NOW.