Help.. I think I have an Egg Eater.....

[J Stephens]

People do not realize that birds in general do not taste spicy things like peppers, I have the same problem going on with a Sebright hen, I placed 2 marble eggs in the nest boxes (they are larger than what the Sebright produces) after they lay an egg the egg eater goes to the larger egg first and is unable to crack it, so far, fingers crossed, it is working, plus I have the luxury of being able to check the nest boxes pretty often. I am hoping she gets a sore beak from trying to crack the marble eggs and just gives up.....Good Luck with the problem

 

[dave1987]

I myself would cull her before the problem spreads to the others.

 

[subhanalah]

Culling won't solve the problem if it's a nutritional deficiency, it will just mysteriously spread through your flock, even after the offender is gone.

 

[mirlin52]

Another thing you may try is to give all of your girls a big bowl of milk, yogurt, sour cream or cottage cheese. Mine like the milk. Try putting wasibi and cayenne pepper in the eggs, and gathering your eggs right away when they are laid. I had to do all of it in order to break the habit. Good luck!!

 

[AKchicken1]

I think this is the "production red" variety you are talking about. Made to pump out eggs at all costs up to and including very aggressive competitive behavior.

I hope our production reds do not become a problem. We are adding 30 new layers to our flock of 30 1 and 2 year old hens. 8 of them are production reds from ideal. They will end up in the trap bait bin or stew pot fast if they become a problem. I hope not. Hoping to get a litle bit of their blood into our flock.

we have had the occasional egg eating. If I drop an egg in our coop the hens will devour it instantly. So, any eggs that crack or break willl be eaten fast. If wefeed oyster shells,scratch and 16% layer and most importantly, keep the nest boxes comfortably full of bedding we have no issues. If we neglect the bedding one day, we will go from 0 broken/eaten eggs to up to 5. If they are always having to peck around under themselves to be comfortable, lots of eggs will get broken.

 

[Gryphon]

Another thing you may try is to give all of your girls a big bowl of milk, yogurt, sour cream or cottage cheese. Mine like the milk. Try putting  wasibi and cayenne pepper in the eggs, and gathering your eggs right away  when they are laid. I had to do all of it in order to break the habit. Good luck!!

The extra calcium is a good idea, but chickens can't taste spicy things.

 

[chickyen]

I don't know, I have a production red and she is really sweet, just shy. And I have heard that Rhode Island Reds are aggressive and are higher on the pecking order, since I have heard that I will never get Rhode Island Reds

I have a RIR and she is not the top of the pecking order. I will admit she doesn't like to be held, and is a little shy, but she isn't mean. She is actually quite nice to the others and will occasionally try to peck the dirt out of their feathers.

 

[idhound]

Bad News..... it has nothing to do with the new coop. I went into the coop today and saw one of my Rhode Island Reds eating an egg, she had cracked four and eaten them. Surprisingly, the other hens were not eating them they were just staring at her. I blew an egg and filled it with spicy horse radish mustard, and THEY LIKED IT. What do I do? I don't want the other hens o learn to eat them but I don't know if I can bring myself to killing her. Also, I closed all windows to the coop today and it was very dark in there it didn't seem to work. UUUGGGHHHHH!

take a pair of toe nail clippers and trim the end of beak flat it will bleed a little don't worry about it it will cure the egg breaking it will hurt her to crack the eggs with her beak

 

[Jaymie]

I cured ours by adding a packet of vinegar to their drinking water. It was the best advice I've ever gotten you know it works when the water needs refilled and the pecking if eggs starts again. Doesn't harm your chickens, (or eggs!) and all I've heard for why it works is a deficiency... Please try before you sell her!

 

[winteree]

Over the past view days I have noticed egg production severely dropping. Today, I got 1 egg from 16 consistent layers! I do not want to have to cull my whole flock and I need to solve the problem before others hens catch on and eat the eggs too. I have searched the internet and I can't find anything on this. Please Help!

my grams said that golf balls work wonders, reduce the light in the coop, collect the egg's as many times a day as you can if it's only one or two birds get a chair if possible and sit in the coop for a few hours with a stick and as soon as one starts trying to eat a egg hit her on the back of the leg with the stick (not hard) just enough to get her attention and chase her out of the coop i have a small butter fly net i used for this at my grandma's house but everyone has sticks in a matter of days all the egg eating stopped until grams added a new breed and if that doesn't work cull the offenders my grams always insisted that offender weather they be chick killers, egg eaters, or escape artists that they be killed in the coop in front of the other chickens. I don't know if chickens get that type of thing but it always worked if nothing else did.