egg eating problems

[chickenannie]

I have also been frustrated with this recently, so I totally understand! I've had this problem since I bought 6 auction chickens last month. However, I've been feeding them a lot and it seems to have stopped. then it started again, but only eggs on the one ground nest, and now I think that may have been a skunk! I also am going to try some of the above suggestions.

You can look for yellow egg yolk on the beak of the egg-eating chicken. A friend said they do it while ON the nest, so look at their beaks while setting or just thereafter to catch them. Later, the yolk will wear off.

 

[dragonshiner]

WOW! Thanks for the amazing response everybody! I tried theory 3 today and doubled the amount of food we had been feeding them. When I came home from work my fiancee very happily informed me that there were 6 whole eggs. 6 eggs is the consistent average that we had been getting since I started keeping the log. I'll keep an eye on them all and hopefully this will solve things. But if after a few days they start eating again I'll try that "egg bomb."

 

[barbara4rb]

WOW, aside from having a 7 year old little girl terrorize my chickens (another post), I've been finding broken eggs in the nest boxes all spring. Hmmmm skunks? Hummm cats? OH MY, chickens must be doing this?!!!!

I'll up the amount of food that is out. I always have layer mash out, but I'll add oyster shell. My question is, where do you get oyster shell??? (Or other calcium supplement???) (dumb question.)

 

[dragonshiner]

Okay chicken soup is in my immediate future. I doubled the amount of thier food which is good seeing as there are so many chickens anyway, but it only worked for a day in detering the little buggers from eating thier eggs and now I am back to 3 eggs buried in straw and covered in egg remnants. My fiancee and I have come to the conclusion that it's time to stalk the chicken coop and take out the instigator. We were planning on eliminating a couple of our roosters anyway so we'll just add it to the list. Updates later.

 

[DENALI]

Let me know how you end up determining which one is the culprit...... I am trying to figure out how to identify one myself out of 13 that all look the same.

 

[pattycake]

I've had problems with this on and off, and so far the best cure I've had for it is free-ranging. In winter when they were stuck in the coop all day and chilly and having to put up with the organic food I give them, and they would eat one or two or even three eggs a day (out of 13 layers). They would also pull out each other's feathers, presumably eating those too since I never found them, just the bald patches.

Lately I've stopped with the extra light, and let them free range during most of the day. They're too busy to spend much time in the coop eating eggs and picking on each other. Thank goodness, it was a long winter.

 

[pattycake]

Quote:
Yolk on the face feathers is a dead giveaway!

 

[2fast4u]

yes one it is probably egg eating and it is a very hard habit to break and what i have heard/done is make the nesting boxes very dark and blow a egg so there is no yoke then fill it with mustard and that should prevent them from egg eating

Brandon

 

[MissPrissy]

Quote:
How many chickens do you have together?

I am guessing they are not getting enough to eat and are deficient in protein.

You should have full feeders 24/7 for your chickens. You shouldn't have to go out and 'feed' them. They should have free choice feed, free choice oyster shell and free choice grit along with lots of cool clean water. Egg eating says they are not geting enough to eat and are looking for protein. It is not usually something that is done out of simple boredom.

Along with making sure they have a full feeder of good quality ration, cut out any corn or scratch grains you are giving them. Give them a good portion of black oil sun flower seed and a fair sized handful of kitty kibble every other day to boost their protein. You can also cook them some eggs and crush the shells and all and mix with cooked white rice and plain yogurt for a good boost. If you have any meat scraps or can cook them some hamburger meat they will eat it too.

Don't give them the cat kibble every day. It is made for cats and get their mineral balance off. You don't want that. This time of year with the clover starting to spring up you can also pull and give them some of the yard greens if they can't free range. I have 33 layers and I pull a 5 gallon bucket of fresh clover and grass daily for them as it grows better in certain part of my yard that they have don't access too.

Collect your eggs as often as possible. Look for signs of the yolk dried on the beaks or facial feathers to help figure out who is egg eating.

Sometimes there is no way to break an egg eater and has to be culled from the flock.

Good luck.

 

[DENALI]

We need to invent an exploding egg

One peck from the cuprit and you have premade stew meat, just pick out the feathers! J/K