Well, I've only had my hens a week and in their tractor and this morning's lovely egg had a vicious hole pecked in the end of it. The shell was hard, so she must have had to really jab it hard to break through. I've heard a million times that once a hen's gotten a taste for it, they'll just keep at it, but I have no idea who's doing it, so I can't even re-home to offending hen. We are planning on relying on these ladies for our household eggs, so I'm sincerely hoping it was boredom and the fact that the egg was there for a full day made her do it and if I am able to snatch up the eggs as soon as I get home, she'll stop.
Any advice? They are in a Catawba Converticoop, are being fed Purina layer pellets, being fed a cup or two of fruit and veggie scraps every other day, and are on a nice green lawn where I would think they have access to plenty of good stuff. The daily routine is that they are locked up in the upper portion after dusk and released when I go to work in the morning around 7:15. They have a small portion of layer pellets in the upper coop portion, but have not had water up there as of yet. I'm not opposed to putting some up there so they have something during the night, but I didn't think it was really needed.
Thanks for any advice!
Any advice? They are in a Catawba Converticoop, are being fed Purina layer pellets, being fed a cup or two of fruit and veggie scraps every other day, and are on a nice green lawn where I would think they have access to plenty of good stuff. The daily routine is that they are locked up in the upper portion after dusk and released when I go to work in the morning around 7:15. They have a small portion of layer pellets in the upper coop portion, but have not had water up there as of yet. I'm not opposed to putting some up there so they have something during the night, but I didn't think it was really needed.
Thanks for any advice!