GOOSE eating chicken eggs

[hicktownmom]

I have been trying to figure out what has been happening to my chicken eggs. I am pretty convinced that my geese are eating them. Now that I have the culprit...what do I do? They share the coop and the nesting boxes are on the floor so that the geese can access them for laying. I could add higher boxes, but my hens may still lay in the low ones.

Help!

 

[CMV]

I would get the higher nesting boxes. The geese probably started eating the eggs when they stepped on one/some, broke them accidentally, and realized that they were yummy goodness wrapped up in a fragile shell. It probably started out as an accident, but has graduated to a taste preference. It's a bad habit and hard to break once established. Higher nesting boxes or roll-away nesting boxes are the only two really good methods of stopping this. Opa, a fellow BYCer has some good plans for roll-away nesting boxes. A quick search through the archives should yield some results for plans.

The only other way I know of to deal with this problem is by culling the egg eaters. A bit drastic when some alteration of the nesting boxes may give the same desired effect.

Good luck.