Egg-eating

[Farmgirl1000]

I am not getting many eggs, and there is sometimes sticky stuff in the nest box. How do I identify the egg-eater/s? I have golf balls in there, but they are not working. Has anybody successfully done this without culling?

This is how to get rid of an egg eater.
1. Take a unbroken egg and make a small hole in it.
2. Then drain everything out of the egg .
3. Fill it with mustard and put it back in the nesting box.
Chickens HATE the taste of mustard and they will not peck into any eggs anymore .
I have tried this and it works really well.

 

[Silver Silkie]

My oldest hen was an egg-eater, but she stopped. Do you have a really old hen?

 

[IloveBuffy]

Can I try Rooster Booster instead of mustard?
My hens don't pay much attention to the oyster shells, and if I put cracked corn in with it, they dodge the oyster shells and eat the corn!
(

). Is there anything that'll do oyster shell's purpose but will be more noticeable?

 

[Henrietta2]

That sounds delectable, and now you'll have more eggsses

Did you have some fava beans and a nice chianti on the side?

 

[jonadue]

When only three of my six birds started laying, I would find yolk on the nest but no shells or anything. So I had my son ( who is home during the day) check for eggs more frequently, to try to head whoever was eating off and he found a broken egg in the nest two days in a row. I have linoleum in the bottom of the boxes with hay on top of that, but the hens would clear all the hay out to the sides and I guess when one of the hens would lay, the egg would drop and break and, I suppose, one of the birds noticed and decided to try it. So I went to Lowes and bought a1'x12' piece of soft, indoor/ outdoor carpet. cut it to size (12"x14") and laid it in the nest with hay on top. No more broken eggs, no more egg eating.

 

[Cheryl1948]

First egg today!!!!! One of my girls' saying Merry Christmas! It is a perfect little brown egg. My 15 chickens are 21 and 20 weeks old. Now that we have our first egg, from all I have read it is now time to put out the oyster shell and begin working in some layer feed. Does this sound correct?

 

[FaerieChicken]

We lucked out! I caught one of our girls red handed, there was an egg someone had decided to lay right outside our bedroom window by their water. I had my 2 girls looking out the window when BAM a Rhode Island Red just pecks at the egg, starts sucking the goods out and here come the rest of them running to taste the treat! Then the Red took off with the shell to eat leaving behind some of the goodness spilled out for the rest to eat up.
Then today, I'm collecting eggs and noticed an egg in the box pecked open

and then I also have girl who is an egg kicker and will kick them out of the nest before she lays and they break open at the bottom!

Any suggestions or tips? I'll try golf balls!

 

[Extra Java]

Nest box curtains!

I have found that the egg eating was encouraged by 2 factors.

1. The nest boxes were on the ground. (eye level and easy to stand on the outside and peck the within the box)
2. The nest boxes were too large which allowed too much light - drawing attention to the eggs.

You can hang/staple a small flap of fabric to get them used to using it, then slowly drop it down. Google nest box curtains and you will see various and clever examples...

 

[animal paradise]

I have 2 to 3 egg eaters. And I have 150 free ranged chickens. So it's very hard to work out who it is. If u do work out how u stop the egg eaters plz let me know!! Thanks

 

[malndobe]

Last time I had egg eaters I discovered something, they would only eat each others eggs and not their own. I only had 4 hens at the time and to figure out who was doing it I put 2 in one pen and 2 in another. Both pens were having eggs eaten. So I switched them around, still getting eggs eaten. Finally decided to put each into their own pen in the main pen (wire dog crates) and the egg eating immediately stopped. After a few days I decided I wasn't getting anywhere figuring out who the culprits were, so I put them back together again and the egg eating immediately started again. Back into individual crates and after that they were only let out into the yard after they had laid their egg for the day, and the egg was gathered. That way I was sure nobody would lay anything in the yard, if that was a day the hen didn't lay, she just didn't get let out. At night each went back into their own crate. After about 2-3 weeks of this I was able to start letting them together again and they never ate another egg.

Probably wouldn't work well with 100 chickens, but for a smaller flock it worked. And it's the only thing I've ever tried that worked, I've culled hens from most of my groups at one point or another for egg eating, extra calcium, mustard, dish soap, golf balls, etc none worked for me.