egg eating problems

[DENALI]

Here is another idea possibly? My chickens seem to scream "glory hallelujah" after they each lay an egg. What about putting a baby monitor out in the coop and when you hear one sound off go out and "camp" for a little while and watch if one of them tries to eat it. If nothing in 10 minutes of watching just collect that egg and wait for the next screamer to announce another arrival then repeat.

 

[silkiechicken]

Good luck breaking them of the habbit, my guess is what started it was not enough food. They need to have food in front of them 24/7 as they won't over eat and are grazers. Too much cracked corn is also bad as they need the protein... and eggs are a great source of protein if they can't get it from their feed. I'm lucky to have no egg eating problems. However, I don't think the hens can see very well in their laying hutches as it is nearly entirely enclosed with a lid on top so it's dark.

 

[Yogiman]

From the "What It's Worth Department":
This might be some helpful reading regarding your problem:

http://msucares.com/poultry/management/poultry_eat_eggs.html

 

[rufus]

If you have too much invested in the flock to just eat them, you might try the nest with the slanted floor. When the hen gets up, the egg naturally slowly rolls back into a slot and down into a padded chamber where the hens can't get at it.

If they can't get at it, they can't eat it. The hens usually aren't smart enough to lay elsewhere. Eventually they forget about egg eating.

Egg eating is an indication of over crowding or of a nutrional problem. Solve those problems first.

Rufus

 

[dragonshiner]

Quote:
How many chickens do you have together?

We have a total of 50 chickens, 6 pheasants, 4 pigeons, and 4 doves. Since we doubled thier food they have had full troughs from morning to night. It only helped for a couple of days and now I have missing eggs again. I'll try reducing the amount of corn we give them. Right now we give them half cracked corn and half egg mash.
Otherwise I may have to build a slanted floor as was suggested. We were thinking of redoing the nesting boxes anyway to see if it would help.

 

[MissPrissy]

Corn is like candy. It is doing nothing for them. If half of their food is corn they are starving for protein. They need more nutrients and less candy. They are eating eggs because they are starving for the nutrients their feed is lacking. They need MORE protein. No corn. Please read my previous response to this thread for ideas for raising their protein.