Egg Eater - Caught in the act....any suggestions?

[4boysmom]

I have been finding half shells of eggs several times a week and had my suspicions about which hen it was......one of my RIRs was always hanging out at the nest boxes and running the other hens out. Since I was home all afternoon yesterday, I checked for eggs every little while....went down & there she was, eating a freshly laid egg.

I have her tied ( with a string on her leg ) to a tree outside the coop so she doesn't wander all over the neighborhood....she does have food & water, as well as a dog carrier for shelter.


Does the mustard really work?

What else can we do? Tried to rig up a rollout box situation, but the hens didn't want to go in & lay since I didn't have any bedding in there. put carpet in, but the eggs didn't roll.....that's why she's not in the pen today!

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

Do a search on egg eaters or egg eating hen. This topic comes up a lot and you can read all the various suggestions.

Personally, i tried the mustard in the eggs and it didn't work for me. Rehoming was the only thing that worked.

Although, i recently read that someone penned up their egg-eater and fed them nothing but raw eggs for a while - i forget how long. And after that she never touched an egg again.

But do try the search. You will find a ton of information.

 

[Imp]

Although, i recently read that someone penned up their egg-eater and fed them nothing but raw eggs for a while - i forget how long. And after that she never touched an egg again.

That's funny.

I've broken egg eaters. I changed up the coop by adding bucket nests, and rearranging things in the coop. I also added golf balls, ping pong balls and stone eggs to the nests. You can get orangy colored ping pong balls that look like brown eggs. Collect the eggs often. Others have suggested keeping the coop dim, and/or putting curtains in front of the nests so the hens don't see the eggs as well. Some have reported success with filling blown out eggs with mustard, horseradish or liquid soap. I think I was successful cause I was on it quickly. Good luck

Imp​

 

[4boysmom]

took an egg that we used this morning where the shell was just broken a little, filled it with spicy brown mustard and took it down to where I have her tied. She took the bait & started pecking it & took a couple bites of the mustard, looked at it real funny & left it alone.....maybe if I do this every day for a few days, I'll have her broke!

I'll put her back in the pen tonight & take her out in the morning. We do have coyotes around here even though we're close to city limits of Charlotte, NC.


I've gotten 6 eggs today - should have 11 if everyone were to lay that are laying. she didn't give me one & I've only gotten 2 of the 5 Welsummers today, there's also one other little banty that hasn't laid, but she's been pretty regular lately, so it may be her day off..... One of the wellies was looking for a nest, so maybe she'll give me one before the end of the day.

 

[gottalovemychickens]

Quote:
WOW NICE i need to do that