Egg Eating Chicken

[MDchicken]

We have 2 Ducks, 3 bantam chickens, and four regular sized chickens for about 2 years. Over the last few months. One of the chickens started to break open and eat the duck egg. We have tried the following:
Added more nesting material
Placed fake eggs in coop
Getting up early to get egg first
Separated guilty party to solitary confinement for about two weeks.
Put yellow mustard in an egg shell

any other advice? Nothing seems to be working.

 

[Yardmom]

Do you provide oyster shells on the side? Some bird need more than layer and shells provided. What protein percentage are you feeding? Many times egg eating is a shortage of something in their diet. Unfortunately for a few it is just bad habit. Is the duck laying on the floor? Any way to hide the nest more?

 

[MDchicken]

We did start to supplement with oyster shells. When we separated the culprit her eggs were soft. We added the oyster shell to her diet before reintroducing, then we added it to the whole flock. Yes the duck lays the egg on the floor. Not sure how to manage where she lays.

 

[Ridgerunner]

The only thing I can think of that you haven't tried is a rollaway nest so she can't get to the egg. With a duck nest that may not be possible.

I had a hen that would open two chicken eggs a day to eat them. Some of the other hens would help her eat them but they never learned to open eggs themselves. To me that's a big concern, they can teach that skill to others. When I figured out which hen was doing that I ate her. The problem went away.

To me there are too many good hen out there to put up with a bad one.

 

[aart]

What all and how exactly are you feeding?

 

[50-45-1]

Pinless peepers worked for me when I had a feather picking hen.
6 weeks later i took them off her and she no longer picked feathers
She ate ,drank, scratched and flew up on her perch with the others after a couple days of adjustment.
Egg eating can be challenging to correct.
The peepers allowed me to keep this hen.