Help! I've got egg eaters!!

[misspoppins]

I have a very small flock - 8 hens. I just got the last 2 a few days ago.

The first 6 had eaten eggs before, but they haven't laid in a while (they're 2 years old), and I JUST got 2 more and already the old chickies have taught them to eat their eggs! :'( How do I fix this?? Please help!!

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

With that many, you may have to do this repeatedly, but I had one egg eater one time, and it worked the FIRST time...

I took a store bought egg (so the shell was easier to poke holes in), blew out the insides, filled it with liquid soap (Dawn), sealed it up with candle wax, and gave it to her. She never ate another egg...that was over a year ago.

Good luck!

 

[lulu786]

I think you can also buy fake eggs from farm stores. My uncle once put clear nail varnish onto an empty egg shell so it became hard as rock.

 

[rancher hicks]

Quote:
That sounds like a neat trick.
What I do is buy the wooden eggs and leave them in the next box all the time. I had to put a white one in the box for my bantam leghorn, but it seems to help. I've have to say I only had the problem with Nick the roos until they got nest boxes but that's a long story.

I will add in case. Nest boxes should be small enough so that the hens can't have a party in there. No turning around space or just barely. They should also be dark. I've never understood the communal boxes shown in some of the books and periodicals. Seems to me your just asking for trouble.

One modification I hope to make next spring is exterior nest boxes and all the same height or close to it. Right now I have two sets, three high (3 and 3) , and they fight over them. Won't use the bottoms unless absolutely necessary.

Well hope you can stop this. If you can't you'll have to cull the lot and start over.

Rancher

 

[Uzuri]

If you've got that many doing it you're going to have a very hard time clearing it up -- I'd suggest building or buying a roll-away box to get the eggs out of the hens' reach before they have a chance to eat them.

 

[Jesseschickens]

Try putting some mustard in a blown out egg.