egg eating hens

[choopes]

Chickens seem like "monkey see, monkey do" when it comes to eating. I noticed egg production had tapered off, but thought it was the cooler weather. About a week ago I noticed broken egg shells on the beak of one of my hens.I've also found broken eggs in the nesting boxes a few times. The this morning ALL the eggs were gone. 3 out of one box, 1 each from 2 other boxes. I have 5 hens. The one RI can't fly, and layes her eggs on the ground. Is it possable to break them of this? I understand now why commercial poultry houses have the egg fall through as soon as it's layed. I guess I could put them all in the stew pot and start over, but I hate to do that. I've named them and grown attached. I have them for the eggs they lay. Any suggestions appreciated.

 

[Mahonri]

Unless you have nests that drop the egg out of their reach, your best bet is the stew pot.

 

[Judy]

Quote:
X2. Good pics on here of rollaway nest boxes.

 

[Imp]

There are a few tactics that people have tried with various degrees of success.
Put fake eggs or golf balls in the nests. The idea is that they peck at them get no satisfaction so then move on.
Blow out eggs and fill them with hot mustard, horseradish, or liquid soap. Same idea as above
Darken the nests, block the light, some people put curtains in front of the nests.
Collect often if you can
I had success a few years ago by rearranging the coop. I think I shook up the "norm" a bit.
It took a couple weeks.

Good luck,

Imp

 

[bywaterdog]

After reading the title of this post, my questions are:

How many hens did the egg eat?

Is it an Alien egg from outer space?

Should we all be on the lookout for these "bad eggs"?

 

[choopes]

3 hens are solid black, I think black rock. It was one of the black ones that had the egg shell on it's beak. Sadly, I didn't connect at the time of any problem. Only later did I connect on the problem. One of these ladies is my all time best egg layer. I recently bought an incubater, and now have 8 thriving offspring, and another batch due to hatch Saturday, so I guess I can start over.
Thanks for your comments.

 

[FarmerJohn3285]

I'm having the same problem with my RSL eggs. She lays the biggest brown eggs I've ever seen, but here lately when she lays during the day and we collect in the afternoon when we get home from work, there is an eggshell or just remains of yolk in the nest area. It's not an everyday thing but pretty much everytime she lays...every 2nd or 3rd day.

So is there really no solution????

 

[InsaneBreeder]

I have had enormous difficulty with egg-eating this year, and at least half of my 10 layers were doing it. I tried putting soap in an eggshell, but it didn't work. So I tried moving the boxes to a different, higher location, with no ramp and no shelf for them to line up to wait for the egg to be laid so they can eat it. Since I moved it, they have not eaten a single egg. These were die-hard egg-eaters (I had one that would lay her egg every morning sometime around 5 a.m. and eat it immediately after) and they were training all my underling layers to do the same, so I wouldn't give up on your hens yet, if I were you.