HEN HELP!!

[jay1995]

My hen is pecking and breaking open my other hens eggs. Why is she doing this? please help me out. What do I need to do?

 

[brooster]

Use the search button, she is eating the eggs. search before you post!

 

[FarmerDenise]

Once they start this it is hard to break them of this bad habbit. Remove eggs as soon as possible. Get some wooden or ceramic eggs and place them in the nest. Plastic eggs don't work, because they are too soft. When the chicken pecks at the wooden egg, it won't break and maybe hurts its beak a bit. The idea is that they will give up pecking at the eggs, because it isn't worth it. You can get wooden eggs at feed stores or craft stores. It kind of worked with my hen. I had to be pretty vigilant though.

 

[jay1995]

Thanks for the info FarmerDenise, Ill go to my feed store tomorrow and buy some. Thanks.

 

[2468Chickensrgr8]

I have also used about a dozen golf balls in a nest and it seems to stop my egg pecker.....

 

[digitS']

Be real aggressive in dealing with this. You can break them of this habit and really need to. I do not mean be unkind to this hen - just stay on top of the situation as best you can and try different things until you've run out of ideas. She will decide to stop breaking eggs soon or she needs to go.

You have already gotten a couple of good suggestions.

Be sure that the eggs have good hard shells so that they aren't breaking by accident. Any broken egg will be eaten - even by hens that would never break an egg deliberately. Feed oyster shells.

Be sure that the protein level of their diet is high. I have fed rinsed, canned tuna when I was confronted with this problem.

Be sure that the nest boxes are very, very comfortable. Now is not the time to tolerate dirty boxes or inadequate nesting material. The nests should be somewhere quiet. Some folks report very good results with darkened, curtained nestboxes. If they can't see the eggs, they apparently can't eat them but they will lay eggs in the dark.

I got a hen past this problem. Here is wishing you the very best of luck.

Steve

 

[enola]

I hope your other hens don't learn this nasty habit before you get her to quit breaking eggs.

 

[cmom]

I use golf balls too.