Help extreme egg eating!

[twentynine]

Wednesday:

Gathered 11 eggs today. Found evidence of atleast one egg being eaten. One mustard egg has been broken.

I replaced the mustard egg with two eggs filled with dish washing liquid (used up all the mustard).

Further observation this morning the last mustard egg was broken into. And I noticed one of my flock roosters with his neck feathers wet and matted. Grabbed him and he for sure has an odor of mustard on him. Later today when time allows, flock rooster Obama, is going to be seperated from the rest of the flock. If egg eating stops, Mr Obama will be introduced to Mr Kenmore.

This is going to leave me critically short of one flock rooster. I have the previous planned replacements in the brooder now, but they are atleast 5 months away.

 

[farmergirl99]

Need some ideas, for prevention, and correction.
Been raising chickens for 20+ years and never have I had anything like this happen. I have 15 hens of prime laying age, I have been gathering 10 - 15 eggs a day for a few months. Tuesday I got 4, Wednesday I got 4, Thursday 2, Friday 1. Evidence of the hens eating the eggs is obvious, egg white, bits of shell, and yolk stains. Put a game camera in the coop and it shows a hen entering the laying box, as soon as she raises to lay another hen jumps in and gets the egg. Several different hens are showing this behavior.
I feed Nutrena laying pellets, I keep oyster shell in front of them 24/7 and I mix a few handfulls directly with the feed when I fill the feeder.
In my opinion the chickens may be lacking in "green" feeds, grass leafy vegetables and such.
What is the surprise is Monday they were normal Tuesday they are eating eggs like theirs no tomorrow.

You can out golf balls, Easter eggs, or even washed and dried real eggs so that they know they cant eat it

 

[farmergirl99]

Need some ideas, for prevention, and correction.
Been raising chickens for 20+ years and never have I had anything like this happen. I have 15 hens of prime laying age, I have been gathering 10 - 15 eggs a day for a few months. Tuesday I got 4, Wednesday I got 4, Thursday 2, Friday 1. Evidence of the hens eating the eggs is obvious, egg white, bits of shell, and yolk stains. Put a game camera in the coop and it shows a hen entering the laying box, as soon as she raises to lay another hen jumps in and gets the egg. Several different hens are showing this behavior.
I feed Nutrena laying pellets, I keep oyster shell in front of them 24/7 and I mix a few handfulls directly with the feed when I fill the feeder.
In my opinion the chickens may be lacking in "green" feeds, grass leafy vegetables and such.
What is the surprise is Monday they were normal Tuesday they are eating eggs like theirs no tomorrow.

You can out golf balls, Easter eggs, or even washed and dried real eggs so that they know they cant eat it

 

[featherz]

I thought I had an egg eater or two a while back - I bought two dozen ceramic eggs and put those in the nest boxes. Whoever was eating eggs must have had a sprained beak trying to get into those! SO FAR have seen no more evidence. I think I had someone laying thin shelled eggs and that's probably what was going on - but I think saturating the nests with hard as rock eggs might also help.

 

[twentynine]

I will be getting a dozen wooden eggs this weekend. Have 4 spread out in the nest boxes but with only 4 that's only 1 per nest.

 

[twentynine]

Thursday:

Gathered 11 eggs, evidence of atleast one egg being eaten.

Seperated my flock by breed into two runs. Barrack and 7 RIR hens staying in the original run. Obama and 8 BR hens went to the spare hoop house. My hopes are by dividing the flock I can identify the egg eater. And secondly if the egg eating was due to some sort of stress, it should be atleast partially relieved by reducing the population.

The dish washing liquid eggs are completely untouched.

Next week I am planning to start saving eggs again for a late summer early fall hatch. Will be going for BSLs and RIRs again.

 

[twentynine]

Friday, Saturday update:

11 eggs gathered Friday. No sign of egg eating in either runs.

12 eggs gathered Saturday . Once again no sign of egg eating.

I found a source of authentic looking fake eggs. Hobby Lobby, wooden eggs, bag of 4 $1.99.

Some sad news today, Pegleg my wife's little crippled RIR rooster died this morning. He hatched out Febuary 2, with a set of vey bad legs. I know I should have put him down then but I didn't. Mostly because even with bad legs he competed well with the other biddies. It was only when the hatch graduated to a run that his handicap became worse. I moved him into the tractor and their he had stayed. He was a game little guy.

 

[farmergirl99]

Feed them more oyster shells to make they're eggs harder

 

[twentynine]

Feed them more oyster shells to make they're eggs harder

As revealed earlier in this thread.
They have oyster shell in front of them 24/7, oyster shell is mixed with their laying pellet ration- kept in front of them 24/7. And they are receiving a supplement of calcium gluconate ( I had originally said calcium lactate but I was in error). Plus I scatter oyster shell on the floor of the run just incase they miss all the other sources.

Sunday report:
12 eggs gathered, no sign of egg eating. The flock may be over the "hump" on the way to the habit being broken. But I will not relax until I am absolutely sure.

I believe the biggest factor was splitting the flock into two subflocks. Complicates feeding and care some what, but I believe it has reduced stress giving the hens more nest boxes and more room per bird.

 

[farmergirl99]

Great!