hens eating eggs

[squeak1387]

I have a strange little thing going on right now. For the past week or so I have had no eggs to bring in at all from my 6 laying hens.

just a few days ago I saw one of the hens break open and eat an egg I was coming to get. Why would my hens be feating on their own eggs? What could have started this? And ofcoarse, how in the world do I stop it?

 

[snowflake]

Are you having any soft shelled eggs? I thought I had a problem and then noticed one or more of my hens was laying soft shells and when they got in or out of the nest an egg would break, then they would clean it up. Daughter thought they had egg eaters, turned out they had coons getting in and eating, and breaking the eggs. hens got the blame cause they were seen eating broken eggs. How ever if you truly have one braking and eating good eggs, the best fix i have read about is a role-away nesting box, bottom is built on a slant so when the hen lays an egg it rolls to the back of the box. I think there are plans for one some place in the forum. Some one else may able to post.

 

[squeak1387]

i know for sure that its the chickens eating them. i caught one of them in the act. and once that one broke the egg all of my hens went to town on the insides of it

 

[squeak1387]

Ok I posted about 2 weeks or so about this (see above) I can't get them to stop. Someone sugested dijon mustard and tobasco sauce in an artifical egg. Let them break it open and feast on it and it should stop. Well that didn't help. Some one said they may not be getting the protien they needed so we got game bird feed that we feed the turkeys, quail and ducks. Plus evey night they get the left over meat from dinner. So now I am still lost as to why I'm not getting eggs. And yes, I am 100 percent sure that its the chickens and not a preditor. Me and my husband see atleast one of the eggs breaking and eating a day. I should be getting 10 eggs a day but I get NONE.

does anyone have any help for me?

 

[12henslaying]

Squeak1387,

We had that problem for a short while. A little oyster shell calcium could do the trick. It's most likely not a protein deficiency but the calcium they are after. Sprinkle a little (not too much) in their feeder or in the scratch that you give them and see if it doesn't help. Also, the roll-away egg nesting box thingy I've heard is a pretty good trick!

Good luck!

12henslaying

 

[For The Love of Peeps]

Hello,

My Hen was doing the same thing. I fed her more oyster shells and put some golf balls in her eggs & she quit!

 

[Judy]

Mine eat a soft shelled egg or broken egg now and then, but do not break the good ones themselves. Actually, some chicken keepers will purposely throw an egg on the ground for them to eat if the egg is really poop covered or cracked or something, and say this never causes them to start cracking and eating their own. The old-timey answer to this is to replace then hens. If you have some luck with calcium shell or golf balls, more power to you! (Tabasco won't work as they have no taste buds for capsaicin.) Rollaway nests, though, are probably the only really good solution.

 

[squeak1387]

My hens don't really use their nest boxes or I would try that.
I guess ill try the oystershell and golfballs.

 

[nancyriverchick]

This is so frustrating, give them everything you think
they could possibly need and they still eat eggs! I might
get a roll out nest arrangement but don't have room.
What is working for me is collecting eggs two or more
times a day, I always get a kick out of getting there first...
Never thought I would enjoy having a contest with a hen,
go figure. Best luck to you

 

[Hozer]

One more thought...a friend had black sexlinks eating their eggs. He put a board across the bottom of the nest boxes so they could not see in so easily and they stopped the egg eating...go figure. Maybe raise the nest boxes.

I have a rooster that eats eggs. Not just one now and then, but several a day. I was putting a hen a day out of the coop over night to see who was eating them. After about 4 hens, in exhile, I caught the rooster in the act. Looking back, I remember seeing him in the next box once. Man, I would have gone through the whole flock before I suspected the rooster. He is now a "dead man walking". Eagle bait...living outside the coop until I can get a replacement. He still snuck in and got an egg when I let the hens out to forage.