EGG EATING

[dehope]

I think one of my girls is eating the eggs. I have 15 chickens and I was getting 12 to 15 eggs a day until last week. Now I might get 2 or 3 eggs. I know that they slow down when they are molting,which they are but the nest box is very gooey and the eggs have been very messy. Do wooden eggs help with this? I have heard of putting up a curtian around the nest box, that is suppost to keep out the chickens when they are not laying. Has any one tried this? I also heard that they will eat eggs when they are boord, and that I should provoide some kind to entertainment?? does that sound silly. any suggestions would help. Dena

 

[jhm47]

Figure out which hen(s) are eating the eggs, and invite them into your home for chicken soup. The offending hens should have dried eggyolk on their beaks and around their faces. It's very hard to break them of eating eggs once they get started.

 

[jonesgirl]

Mine were pecking their eggs open for awhile too... I have to literally get the eggs as soon as I can to stop them from getting curious!

 

[sillybirds]

It sounds like you've got the right answers to your question. Try the things you said, and hopefully it will work. If only one chicken has learned how good eggs are, you could, as jhm47 pointed out, take that one out. If that many eggs have been eaten, probably several have gotten a taste for eggs. If the fake eggs, dark nest boxes, entertainment don't work, you could as a last resort build roll-away nest boxes. Good luck!

 

[Teresaann24]

I got a tip from another Byc'er on this once to figure out who was eating eggs. He told me to get an egg and easily roll it on the floor infrount of the hens and the first one to run up to bust it. You will have your egg eater! Worked for me...

 

[Niner]

How does one entertain a chicken?

The chicken dance?

 

[ewesfullchicks]

I raise eggs commercially, and this is a problem for me.

Out of a flock of several hundred, it's usually only one or two that's the problem bird. I find that late afternoon, when I'm collecting eggs, the problem hen is the one still in the nest box pecking around. Hens that are going broody exhibit far different behavior.

As far as the advice to roll an egg - I'd discount this.

Most of us commercial egg producers will feed excess eggs back to their flock. Hens who eat broken eggs are NOT those that will break and eat unbroken eggs.

Like a dog....hens will chase moving food. They are genetically programmed to chase insects.

In my main flock (I have three), out of 150 eggs laid per day, I have 1-3 eggs eaten.

Please respond privately, if you've got more questions.
Rachel
Rosharon, TX

 

[Jeff9118]

I'm no expert but have had this issue and have even taken in hens that do this. I think it is more of a diet defficency than anything else. Others might argue that the others would eat them to if this was true but maybe that hen needs more of somthing then another. I found in every case that these had been hens cooped up for quite a while. Thier is no real science involved in this but everyone of them has stopped simply by adding other things into the diet or letting them free range daily for a week or two as they tend to find what they need running loose on thier own. I think you will find once penned back up that you wont have this issue again unless you leave them up again for a long time. I'm talking freerange from daylight til dark as it has been my experience that a couple hours a day didnt really change anything. This has worked everytime for me and I have yet to not break one of this habit useing this method. Being bored to death in the coop may also have some play in it. Also I feed any cracked or broke eggs back to my flock or any hidden nest of eggs I find and have tested the laying the egg on the floor theory. Seems many of my hens responded and even pecked at the egg but then walked away and ignored it after realizing it is not broke. None of my hens ever eat thier eggs. I think If I laid dog poo down they would come running and maybe even peck at it as I am the one that feeds them and I lay all thier food down for them.