Egg eater- help please

[crazychic]

I have an egg eater. I know how to solve the problem, what I dont know is how to figure out who the culprit is. I have 15 hens and cant find a one with egg on there face. (lol) IM FRUSTRATED!! HELP!!

 

[bigzio]

crazychic, In my opinion there could be several reasons why you have a egg eater.

There are a number of cures for the problem and culling the unfortunate hen with egg on it's face is not a solution in my opinion, because any hen will eat a broken egg.

1. collect eggs often, broken eggs because hens to fight for the same nest box is common.

2. Darken the nests to provide privacy for the hen to lay, by hanging a material in front of the entrance with a slit for the hens to enter, which they will.

3. Increase the amount of protein in the diet. Treats like dry cat food, 30% protein,
black oil sunflower seeds 30% protein are a good start. Eggs have alot of protein and hens have the ability to know what their diet is lacking.

4. To assume a hen with egg on her face makes her the egg eater can result in the same problem to continue, in my experienced opinion.

bigzio

 

[crazychic]

Thanks- I work through the day, so I can only collect in the afternoon. (which I always do faithfully. Its my favorite chore) I provide free choice grit and oyster shell. I feed a layer ration.(free choice) However, I will try the cat food and a drape over the nests. Mabe hang a head of lettuce? I get very attached to my girls, so I dont cull. However, I do have a friend that keeps a mixture of chickens running around for eye candy and tick patrol. ( I already gave her the NICE barred rock that I was sure was my egg eater.)

Thanks for the advice. There is a possibility that a hens are breaking them . I have often witnessed two hens in the same nest.

 

[crazychic]

Bigzio, I forgot to tell you, I purchased half of my hens at a poultry auction. I think I inherited my egg eater from there. The other half are hens I hatched out, and have never had a problem out of them.

 

[FrozenChicken]

Big Zio is bang on this one.

 

[bigzio]

crazychic, glad you are eager to try my solutions, because I would never recommend anything that hasen't worked for me in the past. I've cured hens and never had to cull any.

I agree that collecting eggs is the most fun part. Maybe on days off collect more often and see if your daily count increases on those days, although just by chance you could collect more.

Giving the hens different things to occupy their time is good for a healthy flock too.

bigzio

 

[crazychic]

Bigzio- I tried the catfood, they wont touch it. I usually throw them a few handfuls of oats when Im feeding my mare, and when I threw them catfood instread they looked at me like they wanted to flog me. (GET HER!!

) Its being walked into the dirt. On to darkening the nests...

 

[crazychic]

Hi frozen- Bang HUH??? Is that like De bomb?

 

[BeckyLa]

It took my hens a while to accept that cat food and sunflower seeds are actually food.

But I kept feeding them, in addition to their regular layer feed, as their only treat. I also would sometimes mix a little cracked corn with it so in their rush to get the corn they also ate some cat food and sunflower seed and found it's not so bad. Now they love them. You might just give them some time with the new things.

 

[bayouchica]

Hi there, maybe try to wet the cat food ? My chickens eat it dry,but they go crazy when it's wet !

Miriam