hens eating their eggs. what to do?

[osagebill88]

This started a few months ago. The original criminal was an older Turken. I tried to put golf balls in the nest. Next I emptied eggs and filled them with mustard. This worked for about a week. The last step was to isolate those I thought were doing the crime, the older turken hen and a young EE who is on the bottom of the hierchy. This worked well for about 1 week and now I have someone doing it again! I am at my wits end and thinking of starting over with new chicks. I was wanting to have a broody but its hard to pull off when someone is eating the eggs. I always wanted a mixed flock of EE's and Cuckoo Marans and its not exactly working out.

I change their water every day
They have egg ration pellets in the feeder and I toss scratch and different greens in the pen daily (to include grass). They are well feed
I crumble the egg shells up and toss them back in the pen. this is something my granny and great aunt always done.
Can someone link a good chicken n dumplings recipe? (I threatened them verbally with this information this morning).

Thanks for any and all advice to include recipe!

 

[Chicks Galore3]

The chickens might have caught on that the crumbled egg shells came from the eggs they laid. My chickens are egg eaters too...I made roll away nesting boxes, which rolls the eggs away to a inexcessible-to-a-chicken box so they can't reach them to eat it. You can look around for plans on here.

 

[theoldchick]

The roll away nest boxes work great for egg eating chickens. You can try adding animal protein to their diet-dry cat food a couple times a week. You can moisten the kibble if you want. Also make sure you don't have a snake/rat/or other varmit getting the eggs.

My girls enjoy a variety of animal protein:


Chicken:


Scrambled eggs




Hot dog weiner


Even pork chops


Also remember calcium should be included in the diet, and many greens can be a source of calcium.





And a good crock-pot can do wonders on tough old birds.

I hope this helps. Good luck!

 

[osagebill88]

Thanks for the responses. It was to cold at that time to be a snake and I caught the Turken eating an egg one day. The only think I dont like about rollaways is I can never get a broody hen that way. Kinda one of my favorite parts about raising chickens is watching them hatch a brood. I will keep trying to figure something out!