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

[Crystal19]

I save my egg shells put them in the microwave for about 45 secs crush them up and feed it to my girls about once a week. They no longer eat eggs.

 

[rendezvous1838]

Hatchet

 

[Gryphon]

An old farmer told me to put Red Pepper Flakes (found in the spice isle) in the chicken food. They love the taste of the flakes. It makes the egg smell bad (not to us), but the egg smells bad to the chicken and they will not eat the egg. The farmer swore the egg will not taste any different when you eat it.

A chicken's sense of smell is worse than ours, so this is just an old wive's (farmer's?) tale.

 

[Jazor]

I had this exact problem with mine. They were eating eggs, and the bad habit started to spread. I was able to 100% cure this, but it took a couple weeks. What I did:

*Started giving oyster shell in a separate feeder
*Placed 8-10 storebought eggs in each nest box and mark them (so I could tell if they ate the store eggs and laid new eggs)
*After a week of over-egging them, I stopped supplying storebought eggs.
*Placed wooden eggs in their nest boxes


Maybe it was some combination of the things above that stopped them, maybe it was something they grew out of on their own and I was just entertaining them while they did it. Either way, something worked--and they no longer eat any eggs at all. Even if one is laid out in their run in the open, it goes unpecked all day.

 

[jaudon77]

I recently discovered one of my white peahens was an egg eater...I filled filled eggs up with regular mustard and dishsoap than sat around and waited. It only took a couple pecks and I guess the taste was enough to stop it. She immediately ran away shaking her head. I left the eggs in their coop on the ground that way when they laid they wouldn't be able to tell which eggs were which.

As a plus the yellow made it very easy to tell who the culprit was. Not easy in a pen full of identical white peahens.

I did this last night. Can't wait to start collecting white peafowl eggs.

I just wonder how many eggs I've lost, my blues and blackshoulders have been laying for about a month now.

 

[izzyschickens]

Go to this site, i think it will help!

 

[izzyschickens]

whoops, i forgot to post it https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/six-tips-on-breaking-your-egg-eater

 

[izzyschickens]

Also, just separate the egg eater from the other ones by taking the egg eater's eggs and putting them in a different coop and put her in that stall/coop

 

[chick peeps]

yeah toys will help them not get board, I bought a square suet feeder and I hang it from the side of their run. I'll put grass or bread in there, they love it!

 

[Arnold Acres]

If you have figured out which chicken is the culprit, unfortunately the best thing to do is to cull her. Otherwise the other chickens will pick up on the habit and you may end up having to cull your entire flock. Hopefully she is the only one.

I had this problem over the winter. I was hardly getting any eggs from my flock because they would eat them, and I never figured out which chicken, or chickens, was the culprit. Overcrowding can cause the problem. Our hens free range during the spring, summer and fall, and in the winter we pen them in. Once I let my birds out to free range in the spring, the egg eating thankfully stopped immediately. Not everyone may find free range convenient, but if you can do that it may cure the egg eater. Then you can pen them in again.

You can also try adding more nest boxes. You should have one nest per four birds if they are confined. So for 16 birds I would have four or five nests. (When free ranging, our entire flock uses just one or two nests)

Or try keeping less hens per the area; expand the pen you have or make additional one and divide up your birds into separate areas, say eight birds per coop.

Sometimes a distraction works. They won't eat eggs if they can be busy doing something else. If they can forage grass and bugs, dust-bathe in the sun, or peck at some other source of food they will be too busy to bother eat any eggs. This is why free ranging is your best bet to cure an egg eater (if you cannot come to cull her that is), or perhaps expanding the pen if you can so that they have lots of room to range. Otherwise, those "flock blocks" are great for birds that cannot range to forage, or hanging lettuce or some other tasty treats that they can peck at might distract them.

Hope this helps, and good luck!