I have two problems with this years pullets which have just started laying.
(1) Egg eating. I have 10 pullets which are housed with 5 3-year-old hens. The hens lay only sporadically now; maybe an egg or two a week. The pullets have just started to lay.....in fact, I'm not sure that all of the Pullets (Black Austrorps and Cookoo Marans) are laying yet. Suddenly, I have egg eaters, and I can't tell which chickens are doing it. The weather has been so snowy/cold that all birds are staying inside their coop, which is 2 levels high, thus there is plenty of room for all the girls. I want to nip this in the bud, before it spreads. I could try the soap trick, and the golf balls in their nest boxes, but I don't know about the BEST method. Is it best to try everything at once?. They have both grit and oyster shell already. About once a week, I give them scrambled eggs with the pulverized egg shells included, and they love that. But, I am really tired of finding empty egg shells in the boxes, where there should be a minimum of about 7 or 8 eggs from the new girls daily.
(2) I also have 4 Americaunas and one black Australorp which are housed seperately. They are young ones, too. I get at least 3 -4 eggs a day from those 5 girls. The other problem now is that my Americaunas (and the Aussie) lay their eggs on the floor instead of the box. I don't like them laying on the poor and dirt on the floor. Anybody have any ideas about how to get them to lay in the box. It's plenty big and is open on only side, with a curtain over part of the opening. That is what the other chickens use, and it works fine. They also have grit and oyster shell, with plenty of food and water, and a seed ball which amuses them greatly.
I would love to hear other people's experiences with the above sorts of problems. I feel I have an open window of time now to correct their behaviors, but the window is starting to close. Thanks for your help!
Lizziechick
