Egg Eating Chicken and I am out of ideas

[loverofhatching]

When i encountered this problem, i put plastic eggs in the nests but those were broken by pecking at. then furiously i destroyed their favourite nest. For 2-3 days they laid eggs in another nest and i collected eggs as soon as they were laid and i frightened the hen out of nest who had laid egg. after 2-3 days i restored their favourite nest with new straw. and since have not find an egg eaten so far.

 

[cash money]

The post you just put on here makes no sense

 

[cash money]

All of them the hot sauce doesn't work the fake eggs only work about half of the time

 

[fatcatx]

Here is a cheap and quick one I got at Randal Burkey. I just put a scrap piece of 2-4 under the front and egg eating ended. I tried leaded eggs etc and nothing worked but this did. And I was ready to cull but now I don't need to. that sits on an angle and the eggs roll to the back

Does anyone have pictures of how you used these inserts? I am trying to figure out if we can retrofit our boxes with these or if we need to start over with new ones.
Curious for people who have gone this route - Did your chickens balk at using a nest box with no nesting material or did they get right to business?

 

[yellowchicks]

Quote: You can build a ramp to retrofit the existing nest boxes, keep shimming the ramps until reaches a desires slope. I used a golf practice mat in the nest boxes, secured a golf ball on each mat to entice the chickens. I then add some bedding materials (pine shavings) there to get the girls used to laying on the golf mats (or whatever matting materials you want to use). However, eggs don't roll down very well with bedding in place. Once the chickens get used to laying in the nest box, I remove the bedding materials so the eggs can roll down nicely to the back.

 

[pdirt]

I keep seeing to use hot sauce as a deterrent. However, I've read elsewhere that chickens dont have the receptors for heat and therefore are unaffected by things such as hot peppers. Just curious if anyone has first hand experience.

I often set out a feeder dish with red chili flakes in it. They love it...it's usually gone in hours. Ever heard of the famous "bird pepper"? Other that weirdos who like pain, only birds would touch the pepper. Some claim hot peppers can help control internal worms in chickens. It makes sense, as worms have very delicate skin that would be easily burned by hot peppers.

why does everyone always wqant to kill their chickens?

Some folks raise chickens for pets. Others raise them for eggs and meat. Neither way is right nor wrong...and both ways will be meeting needs of their owners.

 

[reenaldo]

So we have had a recent egg eating issue. We did the mustard thing and it seems to have helped after multiple tries. The only problem is that they are still eating the green eggs. We only have one green egg layer so I'm not ever able to get a whole shell in order to fill with something gross. Any suggestions? I was thinking of painting one of our ceramic eggs so it was green but didn't know if that would be bad for them. The green eggs are my favorite so I'm sad about it

 

[Farmer Joe]

I had egg eaters and tried all the regular tricks nothing worked until I bit the bullet and built rollout nesting boxes. Works like a charm.

 

[Alex41]

I've found 2 confirmed egg eaters in my flock. The odd thing is that both were broody at the time. I read all the ideas about egg-eaters, but no info why a broody hen would do this. The first was removed to freezer camp and now I just found a second broody hen eating here eggs. She is removed to a separate cage for now as I'm not sure what to do. I hope the behavior hasn't spread to others.

Any idea why a broody hen would eat eggs?


Thanks,
Alex

 

[SunkenRoadFarms]

I've found 2 confirmed egg eaters in my flock. The odd thing is that both were broody at the time. I read all the ideas about egg-eaters, but no info why a broody hen would do this. The first was removed to freezer camp and now I just found a second broody hen eating here eggs. She is removed to a separate cage for now as I'm not sure what to do. I hope the behavior hasn't spread to others.

Any idea why a broody hen would eat eggs?


Thanks,
Alex

It could be a lack of protein due to how harsh broodiness is on a hen. I would try to break her broodiness and provide a 20% protein feed. As a side note, I thought my current broody was eating the eggs as well, but it just turned out that her own weight was crushing them, then when she had her daily break other hens would come in and eat the broken eggs.