Egg eater!!

[Hollywood Chickens]

I set the bait and now I just have to see which chicken has a blue face!

The soap is Seventh Generation, could it make her sick?

 

[SkyWarrior]

Quote:
Probably not. Soap, especially something that mild, isn't particularly harmful. When you consider they use Dawn to degrease wildfowl that are in oil spills, a mouthful would probably just be annoying. She might even blow bubbles.

 

[rancher hicks]

I posted this before but here goes.

I keep wooden eggs in the nest boxes all the time. I do have to wash them off occasionally but they are there 24/7. I figure it will help the newbies and if they get pecked it won't feel good to the birds. I have always done this.

Make sure your nest boxes are dark inside and not so big the hen can stand and turn around. Openings should be just big enough for her to get in and lay her egg and nothing else. No hosting of overnight friends or pj parties.

Make sure the bedding is soft enough to recieve the egg without breaking it when she drops it. My mother did this with my sister and she just ain't right.

Now it is possible the shells are too thin. Increase your oyster shell grit and keep it on demand. You can mix some in the feed if there are no young ones. If the shells are to thin then a hen stepping on the egg will break it. I had a broken one yesterday and one today with a dent today.

Check the boxes often, do the shells you bring in and use seem thin?

All the best

Rancher

 

[Hollywood Chickens]

I think I found the egg eater! I found my little goat stand near their favorite nesting spot (which is not the the 6 clean new nesting boxes) and she stepped on the eggs. I have to train them to lay in the nesting boxes!!!

Make sure the bedding is soft enough to recieve the egg without breaking it when she drops it. My mother did this with my sister and she just ain't right. lol

A few of my sisters also hit the floor! one of them in my best friend but can't do math and the other has trouble listening

ETA: I guess the hen that pooped the egg just tasted it

 

[SkyWarrior]

Quote:
A few of my sisters also hit the floor! one of them in my best friend but can't do math and the other has trouble listening

ETA: I guess the hen that pooped the egg just tasted it

Solution? Keep your goat away from your chickens!

 

[JetBlack]

Quote:
GENIUS! I wonder if the coloring will change the poop color as well... You'll briefly have a very decorative lawn. Do green and red around Christmas!

There's always someone to take a regular old catastrophe and say "You know what we ought to do?"

"..."

Blue soap bubble will be way cooler than clear ones!

 

[Hollywood Chickens]

no one took the bait so I don't know if they would poop blue bubbles! I moved things around and I haven't had a broken egg since!

 

[LV Chicks]

Just hours after getting our four Seramas home, one laid an egg.... and another proceeded to attempt to eat it.....
I will be going to Michael's tonight for a couple of wooden eggs, as that seems like the easiest and least invasive way of dealing with it. If that doesn't work, food colouring and hot sauce it is!

Glad this thread was started and very glad to have options so soon after the issue arose. Thank you, so much, for the great ideas! .... Eck.... Who'd of thunk....

 

[eawalenda]

I tried the mustard filled eggs... My girls enjoyed them. Thinking about the roll away boxes now.

 

[romstr]

I also have an egg eater in my flock. I have had my girls for about two years and I have tried everything from emptying an egg and putting dish soap in to using mustard etc.. I even isolated the eater from the flock during the summer months ( once i found out which one it was which was not easy). The irony is my egg eater gave me the solution to my problem. My girl decided she wanted to live outside the coop all summer long. One day i walked inside the food storage side of my coupe and i noticed an egg in one of my galvanized buckets. My egg eater decided she would lay in this location. I walked in one day and noticed her pecking at the egg while out of the bucket. I thought what if I raised the bucket up just enough that she could not easily get her neck in to peck. It worked all summer she did not eat another egg. However winter came and she went back with the girls in the coop. We did not have any issues until around January when she again started going inside the nesting boxers and eating the eggs. My solution was to close off the boxes and move the bucket in for all the girls. After a few days they all started to lay in the bucket. I took this picture this afternoon as I watched my little eater try to get her neck into the galvanized bucket with not luck..She was not a happy happy chicken she was making all sorts of noises. I do not have a very large flock only 8 girls so my solution to the eater may not be suitable for others but i have three more buckets laying around to use if i need. The key to the solution is to have a bucket big enough for your hen but small enough that they cannot stand up and peck down. You also must elevate it a little or they will still be able to their neck in deep enough to eat .







enough to eat... Hope this helps....