Egg eating?

[bluebird]

I'm sure it's easy for that to happen... but with a flock of 60+ birds, I had a couple eggs broken and eaten here and there. Even had a broody score one and had her chicks feasting. But with standard making sure no one was standing around the lay boxes who shouldn't be (especially juveniles) the fake eggs, and regular (I mean several times per day) collecting of the fresh laid eggs, and YES adequate nutrition (formulated ration, not diminished by treats), I never had a problem develop... yet. And I would work to identify and cull any habitual offender. (assuming it wasn't soft or brittle eggs causing the issue)

I do get the occasional poke hole. That might be a peck but I think it could also be a toenail hole. I do agree it's always good to keep an eye out.

Agreed

 

[Georgeschicks]

I'm sure it's easy for that to happen... but with a flock of 60+ birds, I had a couple eggs broken and eaten here and there. Even had a broody score one and had her chicks feasting. But with standard making sure no one was standing around the lay boxes who shouldn't be (especially juveniles) the fake eggs, and regular (I mean several times per day) collecting of the fresh laid eggs, and YES adequate nutrition (formulated ration, not diminished by treats), I never had a problem develop... yet. And I would work to identify and cull any habitual offender. (assuming it wasn't soft or brittle eggs causing the issue)

I do get the occasional poke hole. That might be a peck but I think it could also be a toenail hole. I do agree it's always good to keep an eye out.

Thanks you for all the help!

 

[333113]

Hi! I’m a newbie chicken owner and I have 6 chickens. Four of them are 29 weeks and 2 are 18 weeks. They have been laying for a while and this morning I found one egg broken. The yolk was everywhere and I think that the chickens ate it. Is their anyway to stop this behavior?
Thanks!

Hi,

I am an old-time chicken owner. If you saw yolk everywhere, they probably just accidentally broke it and tracked it around. Most chickens will eat all of the yolk first.

Chickens are canny about predators. If an egg is broken, they will often eat it to prevent predators from detecting it. Sometimes, they will eat an egg laid in the open, too, to avoid predator attention. A predator who comes around for eggs will be there to eat the babies, too.

Chickens who have a safe, hidden (as far as they are concerned) laying area will lay their eggs there, and will seldom eat the egg unless it is accidentally laid in the open, which happens, or broken by extreme cold (like the -7 degrees we had here last night!) or by accidental breakage, from hens coming and going in the nest. We had several cracked eggs in some of our nest boxes after the freezing weather, and they did not eat them because they were rock-hard. I took out the frozen eggs. I think some chickens do develop a taste for eggs, but that is usually not their favorite food.

To prevent egg loss due to chickens eating the eggs:
1. Make sure they have a safe, protected area to lay their eggs in.
2. Make sure there are enough nest boxes so that the hens don't have to share too much, to avoid traffic and possible breakage in the nest.
3. Make sure the eggs are safe from freezing.
4. Gather eggs as soon or as often as you can.
5. Make sure hens have enough food to eat and water to drink, so they don't feel the need to eat eggs for those reasons.

Temple Grandin has some good notes in her books on how errors in breeding can accidentally remove important instincts from chickens. I hope that's not the case for your hens, and that the normal precautions listed above will prevent further egg loss.

Connie Abeln

 

[aart]

Temple Grandin has some good notes in her books on how errors in breeding can accidentally remove important instincts from chickens.

Intrigued, so googled and found this,
interesting reading on layers regarding bone breakage and feather picking:
http://www.grandin.com/inc/animals.make.us.human.ch7.html
Especially interesting about feather picking in regards to foraging availability.
Apologies to @Georgeschicks for the topic change.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Intrigued, so googled and found this,
interesting reading on layers regarding bone breakage and feather picking:
http://www.grandin.com/inc/animals.make.us.human.ch7.html
Especially interesting about feather picking in regards to foraging availability.
Apologies to @Georgeschicks for the topic change.

I buy it.

Like I said previously.. even though everyone wants to jump directly to you MUST be feeding too low of protein. My research says there is very little digestible protein in feathers. Something like 2% if I remember correctly.

And on top of that... (sorry off topic also)... I DON'T buy that chickens are attracted to red. Thing is their combs and waddles are red and they don't go after them all the time. I was thinking about this when I had given someone advice to use food color on vents to identify who was laying but suggested NOT red because it invites pecking. Then sitting out watching the birds as we do, I saw one lady lift her tail to expel some waste and saw that her vent is nice and pink/red but covered by feathers. So even the red food color might actually be OK. I even saw a study showing that chicks preferred to peck at green and blue before red. I think what REALLY attracts them is the BLOOD. Sure they will peck at a scab on my leg, but it's the blood that really makes them want to continue.

2. Make sure there are enough nest boxes so that the hens don't have to share too much, to avoid traffic and possible breakage in the nest.

This is irrelevant at my place... I have plenty of boxes and many girls will wait in line to use the same one. While others directly next to it will go completely untouched.

ETA: "Bone breakage is a very serious problem in both caged and cage-free hens because laying hens have been overselected for egg production. Commercially bred hens put all their calcium and minerals into forming eggshells, and their own bones become depleted. Their bones are so weak that in cage-free systems a hen can break her leg just jumping off her perch. The only way to solve this problem is for the industry to accept the fact that birds with strong bones will produce slightly fewer eggs."

That is why we provide oyster shell.

 

[mistycolleen]

very interesting thread. i believe i also have a egg eater but after reading everyones comments, i believe mine is on account of irregular feeding lately. they have always had full feeders and wateres but recently with some issues currently, our schedules have been a mess and everyone is apparently suffering. im going to have to step up and get everyone back on our routines and hopefully i wont have anymore yolky nests in the morning.