Egg eating

[Turkey parents]

To add on to everything else going on I just caught Mars eating a fresh egg. I know of one remedy but not ready to go that route. Does anyone know what might cause her to eat her eggs? Is it a lack of something in her diet or could it be stress related?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

It could be a deficiency, do you have oyster shells available. And turkeys will eat any eggs that are cracked, so she could have been doing clean up. I personally feed all turkey eggs back to my turkeys, the crack and splat method.

 

[memphis]

Just curious why you feed them back their eggs?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

They enjoy them and I'm over run with eggs, chickens, ducks, turkeys. I must be the only one who wishes I didn't get so many. They also help offset the feed bill.

 

[Hholly]

Protein? Especially if they re molting. They may be needing more protein.

 

[memphis]

Got it Oldhen....was just curious. A friend of mine is a pastry chef & takes as many of my turkey eggs she can get. But if you have too many eggs....you have too many eggs!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I don't know too many people and prefer not to try to sell eggs. By the middle of the summer those I know are running from me and my eggs. I don't really want to spend time cooking eggs for poultry so I just toss them in the run, a high arking toss, they splat, and they don't resemble eggs when the birds run from everywhere to eat them. Maybe not for everyone but it works for me. Wish I knew your friend.

 

[Turkey parents]

Well that does make me feel a little better. I've never had a turkey survive this long so I don't know much about this stage in life. Coyotes and bobcats usually clean me out by now. I really appreciate everyone's advice, I didn't really want to start a whole new thread about this but maybe it'll help others too.

 

[ivan3]

They also eat "bad" eggs. If they don't eat the "bad" egg, they'll carry it to some distance from nest (one of our Slates carried one off to a distance of seventy yards from nest). Not sure how they know, but they do. Point of eating/removing is to prevent anything that might smell & attract preds to nest. If eating one egg after another after another then look to diet (as other members mentioned). Here's one "sneaking" away with one from her nest: