So reading some more, I found that nutritional deficiencies might be my issue. After all, all the hen shells are pretty thin. Giving up on the hot sauce, I decided if she wanted egg shell, then egg shells she would get. So I crushed up every shell of every egg I used. Saved them all for her. Put them in a bowl in her crate.
I let her roost with the rest, but every morning I catch her before opening the coop and put her in the kennel. So far, these last two days she has laid an egg in her kennel and not pecked at it in the least. She is getting all the egg shell she wants in a bowl. I'm hoping this will solve the problem, but after reading the other poster who also separated the troubled hen, got good behavior, then when released the hen went back to egg eating... I'm still worried.
What is the typical lock down for these gals? A few days? A week? Two weeks?
To answer an earlier question: Yes, four nests. Yes, the pellets should have complete nutrition, but since they just started them in the last week, I figured it might take a bit to work into the system.
I had heard just the opposite. As a matter of fact I was shopping for new feed at the 18 week mark and was told just to keep feeding them grower until they are laying consistently. It won't hurt anything. Now I'm not so sure. At least start mixing the two together at 18 weeks.
Brokk...
