Egg stealer

[Whiber02]

I have figured out that the holes in my eggs are peck sized! my chickens are eating their own eggs! this has happend before, so I am pretty confident!! but now I'd need help finding out how to stop them from eating their own eggs!!!!

 

[amillecay]

Go ahead and take a look at this, i'm going to go look for some more stuff https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/six-tips-on-breaking-your-egg-eater

 

[amillecay]

Some people suggest using golf balls in all the nests, because they peck at them and get tired of nothing happening.. so you could try that and the only other thing I could think of is check for eggs as often as you can so they just don't have any eggs to get at!

 

[Whiber02]

Yeah, I already am putting golf balls in the laying boxes

 

[amillecay]

Okay, do you check for eggs as often as you can?

 

[aggiemae]

I agree that gathering eggs frequently would reduce your losses. And BTW, if the eggs are just cracked but you know they are fresh you can eat them as long as they are cooked.

Over the years Ive noticed that hens seem to eat eggs on some sort of internal cycle and stop as suddenly as they started. Maybe they eat eggs because they need more protein?

I make a high protein treat that is also good for the gut and repels worms by blending 2-3 eggs (you can include the shell of one egg if your hens are laying) ) which I fry and mix with a cup of active culture yogurt, a cup of fermented grains (oats or cracked corn) and a tea spoon or so of either hot pepper flakes or the seeds of a fresh chili pepper. This amount is a meal for six hens. My hens like it warm on cold mornings. Meat scraps, meal worms and grubs are good protein sources as is a can of cheap tuna.

This might sound silly but make sure that your chickens have stuff to do because the quicker they leave the nest box after laying the less likely they are to peck their eggs. Now that its raining mine are confine more so I toss scratch what ever is left over from last nighs dinner and some leavings from our summer garden (currently pumpkins, apples, tomatoes, squash) into the run when I go out to open the coop to keep them busy scratching and pecking for a cuple of hours.

Sorry I can't be more helpful.

 

[PeepsAreForMe]

Mine were eating their eggs when they first started laying.I poked a little hole on each end of an egg, blew out the insides,
made one hole a little bigger and filled it with mustard. I have read they don't like the taste of mustard. They did
crack it open. I had to do that twice but they stopped. I don't get home until 6 from work so I can't gather them
frequently. Good luck!