Feeding raw egg and shells?

[soonerdog]

greyhorsewoman said[/Egg eating is a tendency that comes about for some reason, but I have seen no evidence that it is a learned behavior.b]

It is quite common for animals to have learned behaviors around stimulations for feeding. Chickens are more intelligent than people give them credit. Egg eating is more common among hens that are cooped together verses free ranging hens. And more common with hens that lay their eggs on the bare ground. Egg eating starts when one chicken accidently cracks and eats its own egg. Eventually they learn the purpose to crack and eat the egg. This behavior is observed and joined by others that "learn" that this behavior gives good results....FOOD! Thus, they become "LEARNED" "egg eaters". I have observed this "learned" behavior throughout my years of raising chickens. Yes, it does happen!

For those of you who feed raw eggs to your chickens and do not have issues with "egg eaters" you are extremely lucky.​

 

[pawsplus]

I don't eat eggs myself, so mine go either to friends or relatives (I've made cute labels for the boxes w/ pix of the girls on them!), or get fed to the dogs or the chickens. I usually give them raw to the dogs, but for the chickens I make up a hot breakfast:

In a small bowl, whisk 1-2 eggs

Add rolled oats, layer pellets, and scratch,

Add calcium carbonate

Add soymilk (or real milk, I guess) to get the whole thing to a pudding-like texture.

Nuke in microwave 1 min. Serve warm.

Makes a really nice omeletty sort of thing that they LOVE on a cold morning!

 

[a2ms4chickens]

If any of our hens accidentally crack an egg, I hardboil it, then cut the egg and shell up into pieces and give it back to the chickens.

I do this with the really small eggs that our OEGB and MGB's lay, too. That way, nothing goes to waste and my chickens are happy, which means more eggs!

 

[normajean]

Thank you to everyone for your wonderful advice. I was discussing this with my non-chicken SO and he was skeptical that this was a good idea.
I really started to second guess this idea also when my hens were WAY too interested in what I was holding when I did collect the eggs.
Thank you also to the poster with the advice about when an egg was good for.
I will either cook the eggs or give the egg to my dog and then feed back dried/baked shell to my girlies/
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

[greyhorsewoman]

I've kept chickens for a LOT of years and in MYHO, I still doubt there is any real threat of 'learned' behavior here. There may be an isolated case, but it by far NOT common. I have 50 blkstar pullets right now going on a year old that have been eating raw, cracked eggs from our kitchen since they were old enough. I don't have any egg eaters. I think in all the opportunities I've experienced, I haven't just happened to be 'lucky.'

Occasionally one or two of these hens lays eggs on the ground or in the coop, they are there for me to pick up. Sometimes I drop one and break it (which results in a free for all with ALL the chickens). None of this has 'started' any hens to egg eating.

This is just my most recent flock. I have chickens free ranging my barnyard (different breeds and ages) quite a few don't bother to use the nice nestboxes we have for them .. they make convenient nests in the hayloft, corners of stalls, etc. I gather those eggs up regularly, but not as often as my others. No sudden opportune egg eating.

I've had egg-eating hens in the past, the coop was too small for the number of chickens I ended up with at the time ... it probably didn't provide enough stimulation ... I also had a hen pecking feathers in that flock. I fed my eggshells back to them then and didn't have any 'rash' of other hens picking up the habit. (One egg eating hen can be destruction, just on it's own.)

I never implied chickens were not intelligent. Egg eating is probably much like cribbing or weaving in horses (who are HIGHLY intelligent) which are habits from boredom. (Maybe that is why it happens less in free ranged.) I think it really is a tendency for 'particular' hens and the best solution is to cull an offending hens.

But folks should do what is comfortable for them. The original poster wanted feedback as to whether there were health concerns or whether it would INCITE an outbreak of egg eating. Neither of which has been my experience.

 

[soonerdog]

I have never had an outbreak of egg eaters. That would certainly be a difficult situation. There are probably any number of reasons why hens start this behavior. My experiences have always been with an occasional hen or two and once with a rooster that ate eggs. Just one chicken eating eggs is enough to spoil the egg supply. My occasional little culprits get culled from the flock very quickly...Lol
I got a full flat of free eggs from my cousin last week. Double yolkers! She has a hen house and shares eggs with us on occasion. Her hens are a heavy meat type bird. Her hens produce eggs that are sent for hatching in local hatcheries. Then the hatchlings are sent to local growers to be grown out for slaughter.
Anyway, I asked my cousin how she delt with egg eating. She said, "If I catch one of my girls eating eggs I will wring her neck right there on the spot!" Lol Once they start to eat eggs, I don't think there is any type of a rehabilitation process....Lol So the story goes, once an egg eater always an egg eater, but sometimes not for long....

I read a post a short while back where a lady believed she was dealing with her entire flock of hens eating their eggs.

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

Yeah, I've heard they may learn to eat their own eggs...I always hard boil them & crush them up (shells & all) and feed them that way. They seem to LOVE them!

 

[tomatillo]

Re-visiting this thread.

I let my hens eat raw eggs, but they never eat their own eggs on their own. They consider it a treat and I toss on the ground to break it and then they eat it, and then eat the shell throughout the day.

I did this because the hens had been eating medicated chick starter and I did not want to eat their eggs. So, they get them and enjoy them quite a bit. They laid them after all.

But mine are free range, and never have eaten an egg where they nest.

So, I think it is fine and the little hens enjoy them, too and it looks like it is helping them grow.

More opinions?

 

[sourland]

In general it is a bad husbandry practice. If one starts egg eating, she can rapidly educate an entire flock.

 

[extraordinaryfowl]

I have fed cracked eggs, dirty eggs (raw) back to my hens for years, and it has never caused a problem. The eggs are never more then a day or two old because I regularly collect them, and most of the time just a few hours old.

But I do mash them up, so they don't recognize them. Same with empty shells. I never supplement my layer with calcium, and they have very nice shells.

It is a problem though to feed the whole un-crushed egg back to them. At one time one of my pens of birds waited while a hen laid and them promptly ate the egg, but I broke them of that quickly, now the same hens don't even bother an egg laying out on the ground.