egg-eater! what to do?

[GoldenSparrow]

Good luck, and let us know how it goes.

 

[Cotton42]

That sucks. I have an Orpington that just started laying 3 days ago, in the middle of the night no less, and my chickies are doing the exact same thing. I'm going to buy some brown eggs tomorrow and fill them with mustard and salt. I really hope it works!

 

[ajay]

One of my chickens is doing it too. We thought the eggs were cracking at first, but now we know better. Today was the first day she ate someone else's egg.

Not a happy camper. Will do the mustard thing right away.

 

[linguafranka]

OMG it looks like they are eating up the mustard eggs like no tomorrow! they LIKE it!! boooooooooo!

 

[ImportTheBest]

Hmmm, maybe your hens would be great candidates for the nest boxes that the eggs roll out of! I know there are plans here on BYC as well as ones you can purchase.

 

[RiddleMe]

I'm dealing with the same thing myself. I've read that most of the various "tricks" don't work, though there might be the occasional success for someone with enough luck. I quarantined the guilty party so she wouldn't teach the other birds, and I'm currently building rollout nest boxes. I still need to paint and install them then she's going back in with her flock mates. If I have a problem after that, then I'll probably have to make chicken soup, but I had enough scrap lumber lying around that all it cost me was a little time and a gallon of mis-tint paint from Lowes. And I was planning to build them anyway, this just got me motivated to get it done.

 

[linguafranka]

update on egg-eating solution. unfortunately, they ate up all the mustard-filled eggshells we gave them. even when we mixed in lots of salt & wasabi. so no luck with that strategy

then we had the realization that they *usually* only eat eggs that are laid inside their "sleeping room." they have an "upstairs" sleeping room, where they spend the night, and where we had put the nest boxes. then the chickens mostly decided they prefer to lay "downstairs" in the area of their run that is underneath the sleeping quarters. it's nicer, darker, and has an earthen floor, so i don't blame them. those eggs almost never get eaten.

so, we started letting them out of their upstairs sleeping room a bit earlier in the morning, so they wouldn't be locked up with a tantalizing egg and all the food outside. and when they go out, we shut the upstairs door. they all have to lay their eggs downstairs (and 2 of them aren't happy about it, but what can ya do?). and so far, 2 weeks without an eaten egg!