Avogadro
Songster
Hello, fellow flock mates! I come to you with a bit of a problem...
I recently acquired two chocolate turkeys, a young male and a young female coming up on their first birthday. To our surprise, the hen began laying eggs! We collected the first three eggs without incident, quickly popping them under a broody chicken hen who was more than happy to take more eggs. One egg was laid and froze overnight, unfortunately.. We counted that as a loss and awaited the next egg. Almost a week had passed with no eggs left out like the first three, and we assumed our young hen was done laying. Then, we witnessed her lay an egg one afternoon. Eager to collect it, we made our way to her enclosure, but before we could reach the gate our hen had spun around and immediately devoured her own egg! We've seen her do this one other time since then (and who knows how many other eggs have been eaten..). What on earth happened? Why would she suddenly gain an appetite for eggs? How do we break her of this? Can we break her of this?
We had read that a mustard coated egg shell would deter further egg eating, but after attempting that it turns out that our hen is an avid mustard fan and licked up every last drop of mustard.. so that backfired spectacularly. We leave more than enough food for them, a combination of wild bird seed, 20% protein chicken feed, whole corn, and lots of fresh veggies like cabbage or lettuce with fresh water to wash it down with. The one egg I managed to pry out of her mouth seemed to have a thin shell, but the first three eggs are strong enough to be bopped around by the hens. We're going to try adding more protein and calcium to her diet to attempt to mitigate the issue, but beyond that we're at a loss.. I'm happy to hear any and all advice! Thank you!
I recently acquired two chocolate turkeys, a young male and a young female coming up on their first birthday. To our surprise, the hen began laying eggs! We collected the first three eggs without incident, quickly popping them under a broody chicken hen who was more than happy to take more eggs. One egg was laid and froze overnight, unfortunately.. We counted that as a loss and awaited the next egg. Almost a week had passed with no eggs left out like the first three, and we assumed our young hen was done laying. Then, we witnessed her lay an egg one afternoon. Eager to collect it, we made our way to her enclosure, but before we could reach the gate our hen had spun around and immediately devoured her own egg! We've seen her do this one other time since then (and who knows how many other eggs have been eaten..). What on earth happened? Why would she suddenly gain an appetite for eggs? How do we break her of this? Can we break her of this?
We had read that a mustard coated egg shell would deter further egg eating, but after attempting that it turns out that our hen is an avid mustard fan and licked up every last drop of mustard.. so that backfired spectacularly. We leave more than enough food for them, a combination of wild bird seed, 20% protein chicken feed, whole corn, and lots of fresh veggies like cabbage or lettuce with fresh water to wash it down with. The one egg I managed to pry out of her mouth seemed to have a thin shell, but the first three eggs are strong enough to be bopped around by the hens. We're going to try adding more protein and calcium to her diet to attempt to mitigate the issue, but beyond that we're at a loss.. I'm happy to hear any and all advice! Thank you!
