Egg eating on a massive scale.

[yotetrapper]

I'm at wit's end. For 3 years now I have battled this egg eating problem. It is out of control. It is to the point now that in my "laying" flock, I have 30+ hens and am lucky to get 2-4 eggs a day. Broken egg shells abound. Whats worse, all of my new hens each year (including last year's chicks) become egg eaters as well, as the older ones teach them.

Many of these chickens are expendable, but, for example, my blue laced reds, I have 4 years of improvement into, and I would hate to cull. But I am seriously on the verge of culling my ENTIRE flock and starting over new. The thing is, when I pen up my breeders separate, MOST times they do no eat their eggs (but occasionally they do.)

I have tried ceramic eggs, they seem to make no difference. I have tried roll away nest boxes, but they manage to get their beaks into the compartment the eggs roll into to break them! Or, they refuse to use them....

I am open on any suggestions on how to proceed.

 

[emys]

Check out post #2 in this thread. Might be worth a shot with the ones you really want to keep...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=471712

 

[bobbi-j]

Do you give them oyster shell? The egg-eating stopped here when I started feeding it to my birds.

 

[ADozenGirlz]

I've read about people blowing out an egg and then injecting mustard into it and put it in the nest. It sounds like it should work anyway!

 

[Zanna]

Are you absolutely sure it is your chickens eating the eggs?? Every Spring I have these little blackbird type birds get into my coop (tractor type, very airy) and peck at/eat any eggs laid. If a new hen goes in to lay and scares the birds out, she usually cleans out the nest and eats the rest of the mess left behind. May/June the problem stops, the birds must find something better to eat or they are busy nesting, who knows. Fortunately most of my hens lay in the hay barn, not in the nest boxes in their coop (they free range all daylight hours). This year I put a bunch of extra netting up around the coop with holes too small for the birds to get through, but I watch them go in and out the auto door, just like the chickens!!! I wonder if the mustard trick would discourage the wild birds too???!

 

[jason_mazzy]

Can you separate out your 100% must haves and pen them separate, and then cull out the rest of the flock? Then you can rebuild a new flock from the new stock who doesn't egg eat.

 

[yotetrapper]

Quote:
I think this is what I will be forced to do. Start out culling maybe 10 at a time and HOPE the egg eating stops before I get to the breeders. We're talking over 100 chickens here. <sigh>

I'm sure it's the hens. I've watched them pecking at unbroken eggs ands caught hens innumerable times eyeball deep in eggs. I really am sick over the whole thing, but it's gotten way beyond simply unacceptable.

I wonder if hot sauce could work? I thought birds didn't have taste buds?

 

[emys]

Chickens do not taste the capsaicin in hot peppers. You are better off using mustard (heard of dish soap mixes as well) in your eggs.

 

[ChooksChick]

I got sick over the winter and the eggs weren't collected in all of my coops for days while it was cold enough to freeze them and break them...they all learned to eat eggs.

I blew out a ton of eggs, filled them with a mix of dissolved unflavored gelatin and alum, plus a bitter yuck stuff from the pet store to stop dogs from licking. It was gelatinous and like an egg in consistency, but horrific to taste.

I put these eggs in all of the nests with golf balls- at least 3 in each nest. I cleaned and moved the nest boxes to make it less familiar. I also put curtains that come down all but the bottom 3 inches of the nest boxes.

All of these things done at the same time worked. I don't think any of them would have worked alone. It must be complete change of experience. They are creatures of habit, and putting them off-kilter also helps to break the cycle.

 

[CMV]

So sorry for your situation, yotetrapper. I just culled a group of egg-eaters (my neighbor's, not mine) a couple weeks ago. It's a tough way to be, but it is 100% effective whereas any other method is just a stop-gap. Can you alter the roll away nesting boxes to make them deeper in some way so that the chickens absolutely can't reach the eggs? I've heard of curtains being put in them so that once the egg rolls out of the box it is completely hidden from view. I am just throwing out some ideas that I am sure you have already explored after 3 years of this nonsense. I honestly believe that culling is the only way to completely remedy this issue, but I know you have some birds you just can't part with, so I am trying to come up with ideas that may help.

Good luck.