Egg eater problem

[endo12]

We have always added crushed oyster shells to our feed, and the eggs are good and solid. This morning I put out two eggs filled with hot Chinese mustard. The chickens appeared to love them since they were totally eaten. It's not clear to me what food a chicken would find offensive, but apparently it's not hot mustard. There is one hen that seems to stay in the coop in the AM when everyone else rushes out to get scratch I spread on the ground - mostly to get them out of my way. I guess I'll isolate her for awhile and see if the problem resolves. It's hard to tell who is starting it. Some days we don't have a problem, but most days there are eggs all over the place that are mostly eaten. This is very frustrating.

 

[dainerra]

chickens can't taste "hot" so peppers and such have no effect on them.

 

[starhobo14]

Yes it is a mystery. No breakage yesterday, and I haven't been out to check yet today. Just crawled outta bed and gotta check my BYC over coffee.
To add to the mystery I am getting 4 blue eggs some days (including any broken ones) and only 3 EE pullets. I can only imagine that my old spent EE hen Matilda has come back on line or one of my pullets is doing double duty? Is that even possible? It would maybe explain the weak shells.

P.S. I love the picture in your avatar, Starhobo.

Thanks, we got a couple of feet of snow and she decided that she could fly to the house. She got about six feet and sunk up to her body in the snow. It was actually pretty funny. I am looking forward to some sort of resolution to this eating problem. I know it could help many in the future.

 

[mamabigbird]

We have always added crushed oyster shells to our feed, and the eggs are good and solid. This morning I put out two eggs filled with hot Chinese mustard. The chickens appeared to love them since they were totally eaten. It's not clear to me what food a chicken would find offensive, but apparently it's not hot mustard. There is one hen that seems to stay in the coop in the AM when everyone else rushes out to get scratch I spread on the ground - mostly to get them out of my way. I guess I'll isolate her for awhile and see if the problem resolves. It's hard to tell who is starting it. Some days we don't have a problem, but most days there are eggs all over the place that are mostly eaten. This is very frustrating.

I did squeeze Sunlight Dish soap into the egg with the mustard and saw the chickens sample it, shake their heads and walk away.
I think that may be the yuck factor. I'm still getting eggs with just a pip in the top. Not through to the membrane, but I still think one girl is laying very delicate eggs and that the breakage is accidental. It is always one blue egg out of the batch, not any other blue ones and never any brown ones. I would think that an egg eater would eat any egg that they have an opportunity to.
Just started oyster shell yesterday so will hope this helps.

 

[sherylreno]

I had an issue last year with my EE. All her eggs were soft shelled and broke once she laid them. I stopped feeding treats to the chickens and upped their protein. She was eating the oyster shell so I knew calcium wasn't the issue unless she had a calcium issue where the calcium wasn't being used in her body.

She grew in very nice feathers after her molt and is laying good eggs again. She did have an egg break 2 days ago but I think it was because of something else. The egg got stuck and half of it was in the nest box and the other half was in the run. No one tried to eat it. I did catch her several times eating the broken eggs last year.

When a chicken lays an egg they check it to make sure it's a good egg by pecking it. If the egg breaks she will eat it. It's a defense chickens have from when they were wild. They didn't want predators to find them so they ate the bad eggs to make sure the predators didn't find the nest.

 

[mamabigbird]

I had an issue last year with my EE. All her eggs were soft shelled and broke once she laid them. I stopped feeding treats to the chickens and upped their protein. She was eating the oyster shell so I knew calcium wasn't the issue unless she had a calcium issue where the calcium wasn't being used in her body.

She grew in very nice feathers after her molt and is laying good eggs again. She did have an egg break 2 days ago but I think it was because of something else. The egg got stuck and half of it was in the nest box and the other half was in the run. No one tried to eat it. I did catch her several times eating the broken eggs last year.

When a chicken lays an egg they check it to make sure it's a good egg by pecking it. If the egg breaks she will eat it. It's a defense chickens have from when they were wild. They didn't want predators to find them so they ate the bad eggs to make sure the predators didn't find the nest.

WOW! Thanks for this info. I am soooo hoping that she'll outgrow this.
I panicked at first and thought that I had a mischevious (sp?)"EGG EATER" at large.
I am leaning toward accidental breakage by the hen that laid it due to a soft shell.
Your explanation of natural behavior of manipulating the egg would support mmy observations.
I can't see any other reason for "one blue egg each day".
P.S. I'll cut out the daily "scraps and treats" for a while.

 

[sherylreno]

It's not an issue of her growing out of it, it's an issue to find out why she's laying soft shelled eggs. You need to watch her to see if she's eating the oyster shell or just passing by it and not touching it. If she is eating the oyster shell then it might be a protein issue and you'll need to stop feeding any treats to any of the chickens and up their protein with flock raiser instead of layer's feed and make sure there's plenty of oyster shell for them since flock raiser has less calcium but more protein. I made sure the flock raiser I bought had a minimum of 20% protein and I bought calf manna and put tablespoon per bird per day into the feed container. If the feed container's feeds the chickens for 2 days and you have 8 chickens then you would put 16 tablespoons into the feeder and fill it again once it's empty.

Make sure you mix up the oyster shell daily so they think it's new and will eat it more often.

If she is'nt eating the oyster shell then you need to isolate her for a bit and feed her a crushed up tums tablet and put her back in with the flock. You can put the crushed up tums into water and feed her with a syringe very carefully and it should help her to get her egg shells strong again. You can also just give her the feed with the oyster shell already mixed in it but she may pick it out and not eat it.

 

[mamabigbird]

Another crushed blue egg today. I found it under a fat hen with 4 other eggs so it must have been squashed.The last few days only dented or broken at the pointy end. Not through the membrane.
I have been using the dented eggs for personal use. (I figure if the membrane is intact they're okay)
I don't know which of the 4 EEs is laying the soft eggs so I can't isolate her from the flock to observe whether she is eating the oyster shells.
I'm far too busy to sit in the coop and watch them lay eggs so the mystery will have to continue.
They aren't actually eating them because when they do break they soak into the pine chip bedding.
I have enough good egg layers that I have eggs for sale and enough to share with family so I guess it isn't a big problem.

 

[ChicKat]

To help the hen's body absorb the available calcium, think about putting 1TBSP of cider vingar per gallon in the drinking water. The purpose of the vinegar is to promote the pH inside the chicken that will help her absorb the calcium.

Chickens need vitamin D3 as well, all the D's are 'sunshine' vitamins. The chooks need some sun. D3 powder can be purchased specifically, or you can buy poultry vitamins online or at TSC. Because you were having problems with only 1 blue egg, and because you had multiple blue eggs in one day, one of your layers may have a short ovulation cycle. Good for lots of eggs, but hard to get the shells produced, especially if the eggs are large. I think perhaps instead of chickens purposely breaking and eating the shells may have been accidentally breaking, and the chickens eating as opportunists.

If you could get the shells stronger, the problem may end.

 

[mamabigbird]

To help the hen's body absorb the available calcium, think about putting 1TBSP of cider vingar per gallon in the drinking water. The purpose of the vinegar is to promote the pH inside the chicken that will help her absorb the calcium.

Chickens need vitamin D3 as well, all the D's are 'sunshine' vitamins. The chooks need some sun. D3 powder can be purchased specifically, or you can buy poultry vitamins online or at TSC. Because you were having problems with only 1 blue egg, and because you had multiple blue eggs in one day, one of your layers may have a short ovulation cycle. Good for lots of eggs, but hard to get the shells produced, especially if the eggs are large. I think perhaps instead of chickens purposely breaking and eating the shells may have been accidentally breaking, and the chickens eating as opportunists.

If you could get the shells stronger, the problem may end.

Thanks for the advice about cider vinegar. I've heard good things about that stuff. They get lots of Vitamin D, I think. They free range daily, all day long.
I know in the Pacific Northwest we don't get a lot of actual direct sunlight, but lots of filtered light through the clouds.
Interesting info about having a short ovulation cycle ... that would explain one hen having thin shells.
I wasn't too concerned about the flock's diet as all the others are laying very solid eggshells.
I think I'll try the ACV for sure, although they spend most of the day drinking from the various puddles on the property.