Friend fed 3 month old hens a dozen whole raw eggs

[Sonjasmom]

Hahaha wth!? What would possess someone to do this? I have dropped eggs for the dog and the hens have gotten them first and it didn’t turn them into egg eaters if that helps you feel better.

Same experience. Twice I drop an egg and the girls got to them first. Thankfully none of them eat their eggs now even after tasting them twice.

 

[Double Yolked]

With my hens it is always Chicken see, Chicken do. If even one of the pullets figures it out they'll teach the rest of them.
Oh and if your friend comes over again tell her plainly to not ever do this again and why.

 

[DurtyGirlzLandscaping]

Order ceramic eggs and blow out and fill eggs with orange dish soap and let them find them
Your friend is a doofus.

My question is WHY are YOU feeding them cooked eggs?

 

[nuthatched]

My question is WHY are YOU feeding them cooked eggs?

I'm not feeding cooked eggs. but eggs are a nice protein treat for chickens.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Anyone have a similar situation, is there any chance a one time encounter won't affect them? They aren't laying yet themselves.

I know this is a week old but I'll add my perspective.

To me, an egg eater is a chicken that opens an egg on purpose to eat it. It is not unusual for chickens to eat an egg that is already opened, got broken some way. Not all chickens eat an egg that is already broken but many will.

I've had one egg eater, Dad never had one. They are rare but they can happen. I think mine learned to open an egg when a pullet was laying hers from the roost and it broke when it hit the coop floor. I've had that happen several times, an egg dropped from the roost when a pullet was first starting, but that is the only time one learned to open an egg. It took some effort to determine which hen it was but when I identified her I ate her before she could teach any others to open eggs.

I seriously doubt that one experience with your young pullets will teach them to open eggs. You do not get guarantees with living animals but I would not be losing any sleep over it.

Should I just go ahead and get ceramic eggs?

I use golf balls as fake eggs but if you want to get ceramic eggs you can. I like to put them in the nests to show them where to lay. It does not guarantee when they start laying that they will use the nests (you do not get guarantees with living animals) but it can help influence them to laying in your nests when they start. Will that teach them to not peck at the real eggs later? It will not hurt.

I haven't even opened the nesting boxes yet.

Why? Are you afraid they will sleep in the nests? If they are going to sleep in the nests I'd want to know that before they start laying so I can train them to sleep somewhere else before I got poopy eggs.

My question is WHY are YOU feeding them cooked eggs?

I feed mine cooked and raw eggs. If I have a surplus of eggs that I'm not going to eat, give away, or sell I boil them up and feed them back to the flock. I break them up so they don't look like eggs but I do not separate out the shell.

When I hatch I open any unhatched eggs to try to determine why it did not hatch. I open them at the compost pile and toss the raw egg material and broken shell in the pile. The chickens have access and will sometimes eat the broken eggshells or raw eggs. I've never had an egg eater after doing that, just when that one pullet was laying eggs from the roosts.

Why do I feed them the eggs? Free protein and other nutrients. I'm cheap, I hate to waste anything. I have never seen a problem from this so why would I send those eggs to the landfill?