Great I now have egg eaters

[ridgefire]

Long story short I spent the last 25 days in the hospital down state. I trusted my in-laws with my animals. I am really starting to wonder if they even checked on the flock.

They never collected eggs once the entire time. But yet I didn't have any eggs. They never closed the coop up so now I have birds that roost in the run on the fake tree I built, and they are roosting in the nest boxes as well.

When I left, I had no problems with them. I had an almost perfect flock. They all roosted inside on the roosts, they always left me a ton of eggs in the boxes.

I don't even know where or how to start getting them back in line. Do I start with the egg eaters, the outside roosting, the nest box roosting?

 

[77horses]

ohh that's too bad. I would start with the...egg eaters first.


One method for curing egg eaters is: take whole eggs, blow the yolk of of them (by making a small hole in our side of the shell, and another small hole in the other) and fill it with mustard or something that your chickens don't like to eat. Then, put them in the nest (with no other normal eggs) during the time that you notice they start eating the eggs.

 

[ridgefire]

well with me home now the egg eating has dropped. I have been hitting the coop very early and chasing everyone outside. Last few days I have gotten 8-10 eggs a day. Not what it was before but I'm sure chasing them out early I probably have a nest or two in the yard somewhere.

 

[4boysmama]

Mustard in an egg. That is a great idea. I have some Americaunas that (still) aren't laying but older chickens that are. And when I have then closed up in their *new* coop, the Americaunas eat the eggs (usually). So this idea, I will definitely try! Thanks!

 

[adkchickmama]

Ridgefire, sorry to hear you were in hospital.

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we use ceramic eggs I had gotten in a wire basket, to get the girls to lay in the nests. I leave them in the nests as I have a couple hens ( and a dog) who will eat the eggs if they get a chance. I also saw a post on here recently about someone who blew out real eggs and filled them with plaster of paris and put those in the nests to cure the culprit. Good Luck.

 

[Uzuri]

Frankly I'd start by feeding them the in-laws. The hens will be so fat and happy that they'll forget about the egg eating, and if you feed in-laws inside the coop, they'll spend all their time in there and remember how and where to roost.

 

[ridgefire]

Well its dark out and I still had to grab my 3 run roosting hens, and chase the ducks in as well, dont get me started on the ducks. Then I pulled the six off the nest boxes put them up in the roost and shut the light off. Hoping that will help cure the some of the roosting problems if I just keep at it.

 

[chookchick]

Quote:

Yeah, that sounds like a good start!