Egg Eater

[LaurenRitz]

I have 14 hens and I've been getting maybe 4-5 eggs per day. The birds have a high protein feed, they won't touch oyster shell, and they free range dawn to dusk.

I think I've got a double jeopardy situation, as the lead hen also hogs the nesting box. If any other hens come close she starts screaming. There are three more nesting boxes, but no one uses them since a snake got in earlier this summer.

So I think the others have found somewhere else to lay, or she has bullied them into stopping.

I went out today and there was only one egg in the nest. As I approached she jumped up and screamed at me, then started pecking at the egg!

I grabbed her and put her in the isolation coop. We'll see if the dynamics change.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Have you tried giving them egg shells? Mine generally spill oyster shell everywhere but devour egg shell and it hasn’t turned them into egg-eaters

 

[LaurenRitz]

Have you tried giving them egg shells? Mine generally spill oyster shell everywhere but devour egg shell and it hasn’t turned them into egg-eaters

Thanks. Yeah, I give them eggshell consistently. They eat it just fine, but any time I mention eggshell on here I get at least one person lecturing me on how it HAS to be oyster shell. I just got tired of the idiocy so I don't mention eggshell unless asked about it. SMH

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

I feel ya! I used to think it created egg eaters until it solved my egg eating problems. But this doesn’t help with your issue…

My last flock had five nesting boxes for seven hens and the favorite box changed depending on the weather. In the summer they preferred the outdoor one. Do you have an outdoor nesting box?

 

[LaurenRitz]

They're using the outdoor nesting box. Last year I found their "interim" spot after all the vegetation died for the winter.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

I would keep the mean girl in jail for at least a week and see if that changes things.

 

[LaurenRitz]

Hope so. We'll see.