Egg eater + poop board layer

[DoeAndGander]

Hey guys! I have an egg eater possibly multiple egg eaters. Going to be building rollaway nest box this weekend but wondering if you guys have any suggestions as to getting my pullets to lay in the nest box and not the poop board. I have wooden eggs in box already.i will be adding more curtain fabric and making the box darker too. But pullets don’t seem to care about darkness - the poopboards are brightest spot in coop. Coop consists of 4 hens (using nest box most of the time) 3 pullets (2 laying for sure, have used nest box but also finding their eaten eggs on poop board) so frustrating!

 

[DoeAndGander]

Also, Currently I have a communal nesting box but I think I’m going to make that into two of them - minimal space. My pellets are rebels! They keep hanging out in the nesting box and using it as a bathroom. my first flock was amazing. These pullets are brats!

 

[azygous]

Chickens eating a broken egg on a poop board does not constitute egg eating in its strictest definition. That would come under the heading of "cleaning up a mess" or "splendid opportunity".

New layers often have an unpredictable egg cycle, and an egg can slip out unexpectedly wherever they happen to be at the time the egg reaches it's final destination. Continue to salt the nests with fake eggs, and soon one layer, then the rest, will discover the joys of relaxing there to lay their eggs.

Closing off the nest boxes at night will discourage nest pooping. But be sure to unblock the nests as early in the day as you can or they will simply find another spot to lay.

 

[DoeAndGander]

Chickens eating a broken egg on a poop board does not constitute egg eating in its strictest definition. That would come under the heading of "cleaning up a mess" or "splendid opportunity".

New layers often have an unpredictable egg cycle, and an egg can slip out unexpectedly wherever they happen to be at the time the egg reaches it's final destination. Continue to salt the nests with fake eggs, and soon one layer, then the rest, will discover the joys of relaxing there to lay their eggs.

Closing off the nest boxes at night will discourage nest pooping. But be sure to unblock the nests as early in the day as you can or they will simply find another spot to lay.

Thanks for your reply! Great suggestions. At first I thought that’s what was happening. It was a random egg laid and it broke. I’m still finding shells on poop board and they eat all eggs - in nest box and on poop board unfortunately. I’m getting 0 eggs a day. And should have 2 at least. I see them hanging out in nest box as a playing area during the day. Blah!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Sounds like you have different things going on. I agree an egg eater is a chicken that opens an egg to eat it. If they find one already broken they are just taking advantage of the opportunity. I've only had one true egg eater that opened eggs but some others would help her eat them after she opened it. Luckily they never learned to open them themselves. Hopefully those rollaway nests will solve that part of the problem. I wound up eating mine.

Often when a pullet starts to lay she has total control over the entire process. She lays the egg when and where she wants to. But sometimes she appears to not have control. She might drop the egg wherever she happens to be, on the roost or just walking around. That might be what is happening with your pullets. Or they may have decided that droppings board makes a good nest. Not all hens like nice curtains and dark nests. Are you around enough to determine if those eggs are dropped during the night or laid during the day? Do you ever see one up there laying an egg?

When are they going into the nests to poop? Do they sleep in there at night or is it during the day? With mine it is pretty common for immature pullets to not sleep on the main roosts with the adults because they get beat up if they try. They look for a safer place to sleep. In your case that might be the nests.

If it is during the daytime, it's pretty common for my immature pullets to avoid the mature birds. Sometimes they avoid an amorous male. I don't know how big your coop and run are or how much space is available to them when this happens. During the day mine have the room and weather to be outside practically all day every day so I don't have much of this problem. In the morning when I open up it's pretty common for the immature ones to be up on the roosts while the mature chickens are on the coop floor, they are simply avoiding the adults.

If you can give more details so we can figure out what or why this is happening we might be able to give specific suggestions. Right now there are too many different things that might be going on for me to guess.

 

[DoeAndGander]

So sorry for my delay in response. I will try to answer all questions quick. Pullets are definitely roosting on the roost bar that night. Going into the nesting boxes to hang out and possibly get away from the older hens. Using it as a toilet! Gross.

Finally getting around to roll out nest boxes this weekend. The wood eggs are helping a bit. going to switch them into my larger coop. Not sure if this will help as it may be a space issue in the other coop. Bigger coop is 6 x 9 1/2 and poop boards spanning 3’ x 9 1/2’ with 2 roosting bars. Going to try that. They do get to free range when they want but don’t take advantage of that often

The eggs may have been unintentionally laid on poop boards by pullets. I have yet to find one on poopboard since. With that being said, if they break one open it is completely gone if I don’t catch in time - shell and the whole inside. Only way I can tell when that happens is wetness and some yolk left. Yikes! I’ve caught a few hens and pullets super interested in eggs and pecking. Not cool!!

 

[DoeAndGander]

Also the wooden eggs I bought seem to help