Hens eating eggs! Running of out ideas!

[jckrasch]

@sjturner79 , @Sutremaine , @junebuggena - I have calcium mixed with grit available. The food is from Southern States. From all your suggestions, I may need to get grower feed instead? Or a better quality feed??

Food: https://www.southernstates.com/cata...es-all-grain-layer-breeder-pellets-50-lb.aspx
The calcium/oyster shell: https://www.southernstates.com/catalog/p-4688-coastal-brand-poultry-shell-50-lb.aspx
Poultry grit: https://www.southernstates.com/catalog/p-2198-manna-pro-poultry-grit-5-lb.aspx

@chooks4life - Good idea! I read about chicken spectacles today. They seem to precent chickens from looking ahead, but they can still look down for food...I'd think they can still look down to see eggs?

 

[sjturner79]

@sjturner79 , @Sutremaine , @junebuggena - I have calcium mixed with grit available. The food is from Southern States. From all your suggestions, I may need to get grower feed instead? Or a better quality feed??

Food: https://www.southernstates.com/cata...es-all-grain-layer-breeder-pellets-50-lb.aspx
The calcium/oyster shell: https://www.southernstates.com/catalog/p-4688-coastal-brand-poultry-shell-50-lb.aspx
Poultry grit: https://www.southernstates.com/catalog/p-2198-manna-pro-poultry-grit-5-lb.aspx

@chooks4life - Good idea! I read about chicken spectacles today. They seem to precent chickens from looking ahead, but they can still look down for food...I'd think they can still look down to see eggs?

If you oyster shell and grit are mixed then they may not be eating enough of the calcium for that reason - it needs to be in a seperate container.

Grower feed would usually make egg eating worse.

You need food with at least 15% protein and 3.5 % calcium for laying birds. up to 5% calcium is better, but I have never seen a commecial feed with that level. you should also feed you chooks any meat scraps you have.

 

[junebuggena]

I tried to check it out, but the company has no nutritional information for this feed. I assume it's the standard 15% to 16% protein typical of layer pellets. I do suggest switching to a feed with a protein content no lower than 18%. If you're also having egg shell quality problems, they may have a high parasite load affecting the amount of nutrients that they are actually getting. It may be time to worm them.

 

[chooks4life]

@chooks4life - Good idea! I read about chicken spectacles today. They seem to precent chickens from looking ahead, but they can still look down for food...I'd think they can still look down to see eggs?

Theoretically yes but if it stops them committing cannibalism I don't see why it wouldn't work on eggs too. Egg-breaking is done more in attacking mode than the 'open mouth, lunge, swallow whatever ended up in there' mode in which a lot of chickens feed. Worth a try I guess but you can try other methods. In my experience though raw protein is always preferred to cooked stuff in pellets so even upping the protein levels in the pellets won't deter them because it's an inferior protein source and they know where to get better stuff now. But it's all worth a try, it works for a lot of people.

Good luck!

 

[chooks4life]

Oh, also, you could look into breeding/farming your own mealworms. Lots of people do, and it's a decent protein source you could periodically drop into their coop floor litter so they hunt for it and are kept occupied. Once they find raw wriggly things in the floor litter I don't think eggs will be high on their priorities. You may need to add more litter to give them more work to do.

Best wishes.

 

[jeanette60]

Believe it or not my hens worked out the white golf ball thing. I have painted them to look more like eggs. I found a hard fake rubber egg, very realistic and this worked better.