Egg eating chickens

[epc]

Recently my chickens have begun eating eggs out of the nest. Appears to be a group effort, not just one bad hen. I watched today, one hen started, then the others joined in, devouring two eggs. Has anyone heard of this, and what do I do? Am ready to get rid of all and start over!

 

[crazygoatlady915]

I'd say get rid of the 'one hen' then the others will hopefully give up the habit. If not, New Chicks!

 

[True Grit]

Some people have tried blowing out an egg and filling the shell with mustard. Apparently chickens don't like it? That's all I've read about it. Good luck.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

You could also try giving them some extra protein.

 

[Erica]

Here are some things I've done to help stop egg eating.

- Harden egg shells (extra calcium, worming, check general husbandry) if they're a bit thin
- Darken nestboxes (so hens can't see eggs easily)
- Use roll nests (sloped floor rolls eggs into a safe compartment for collection)
- Separate all egg eaters into pen with plain bare earth or concrete floor. No litter or nestboxes. Eggs will roll away from beaks and habit should break over time — maybe 1-2 weeks. This often works and can sometimes cure the habit, but not always.
- When returning them to the original pen, make a change e.g. darken the nestbox area and elevate nests (if they're not up already). This will help keep the habit from returning.

Mustard eggs or chilli eggs may work once in a blue moon... But have never worked for me (and took a lot of effort). :-(

Regards
Erica

 

[barnyardkid928]

If you continue to find broken eggs, and if you have another cage, then put the one that you think ate the egg in there with a plastic Easter egg filled with egg yolks and whites. It is necessary to stop the habit early, because if this goes on too long it will be nearly impossible to break.


Prevent the habit from starting.
Line your nests with soft padding to decrease the likelihood of an egg breaking. The habit most often starts when an egg breaks accidentally and the chickens start pecking at the broken egg. Also, limit nests to one nest per every 4 (or less) hens to prevent crowding. If too many hens use the nest, eggs are more likely to get trampled or break.Sometimes, the habit can be traced to a nutritional deficiency. Make sure you are feeding your chickens the proper diet.Egg eating can also occur when the light is too bright, nests are on the floor, when there is insufficient nest litter.Some farmers throw broken or cracked eggs on the floor for chickens to eat. Don't do this.If you feed them eggs make sure they're cookedWhen an egg breaks, clean it up as quickly and thoroughly as possible to prevent the chickens from tasting the egg

Count the eggs to see if you are getting most if not all of the eggs that were laid. If not, then perhaps one or more of the chickens are eating their own eggs.

At a golf shop, request some very well used golf balls. You will need 2 golf balls per nest. Insert golf balls into the nests. Keep regular eggs collected.

Wait 1-2 days and the egg supply should return to normal. Leave the golf balls in the nest. Chickens trying to peck the balls will discover they don't break like regular eggs, and may give up on trying to peck their own. The chickens seem to lay all their eggs in the nest without having them scattered. Collect eggs as often as possible - more than once a day, if you can.

Try feeding them liquid milk for a few days.

Try to identify the chickens which are eating the eggs- often it is only a few. Look for yolk on the beak, and try observing the chickens to see if you can catch them at it. As a last resort, remove these hens from the flock or trim about 1/4 to 1/2 inch off the upper beak.

Another possibility is to take an egg which has been started and replace the yolk with English mustard, and perhaps a slosh of
Tabasco sauce if it still gets eaten. They don't often egg-peck after this.

 

[valley ranch]

Two ways to go!
1. Make a nesting box with a slanted bottom with a small 2 1/2" to 3" foot on the low end [ the foot will stick out past the front of the box]. The foot will have a hinged lift door. put no straw in the box so the egg will roll forward when the hen stands up, you can collect the eggs by lifting the door. You can make nesting boxes 4 or 5 in a row.

2. The other thing you can do is put all chickens that participated in the egg eating in the freezer.

Best of luck!


Post #6 mentioned triming the upper beak. On the neighbor's egg ranch, next to the folk,s ranch, they had a unit with an electricly heated metal button that was used to burn the upper beak of chicks so they wouldn't peck each other.
Not sure that would work because the chickens could still eat wet mash.