I think I have an egg eater suggestions please help!!

[NewChickens]

I have ten chickens 6RIR,2 buff orphington, and 3 barred rocks.One of my RIR started laying last Saturday and has been laying for a week. I have another one that has started to lay off and on. I have 3 barred rock chickens who are about 3 weeks younger than the rest of the hens. I was gone yesterday and came home and found two eggs one broken. I watched the hens this morning and one of my barred rocks was digging in the nest quite a bit jumping up in the nest when one of my RIR was laying. I believe she is an egg eater not sure what to do except cull. I took the egg this morning after my RIR jumped out and Barred Rock was in the nest and I think was going to eat another egg. Let me know if you have any suggestions. I had golf balls in the nest before they started laying and I thought that would help down the road with egg eating.

 

[500592]

when they eat there eggs it means that they are bored so if you have somthing that looks like an egg you should spread them around in the run and they should stop eating the eggs

 

[ChooksChick]

I use 4 golf balls in all of the nests, so the chances of bonking a beak into something not very nice to eat are 4 to 1 in any given nest, unless there are lots of eggs. That doesn't feel good, I'm sure, so the chances of eating an egg go way down. They stop trying.

 

[NewChickens]

Thanks for the tips. She was up in the nest again today. pecking at golf balls. I got two eggs this morning before she got to them.

 

[masschix]

Thanks for the ideas. I have 12 layers and I haven't gotten an egg from them in days...all broken or eaten. I want to discourage this behavior now since I have 12 babies that will be laying around October. I'll let you know if this actually works.

 

[luvchicks8]

I filled a couple eggs with mustard.

 

[chicksbestfriend]

Egg eating can spread into the flock and once that happens, you have to take the whole flock down. isolate the chicken that is eating the eggs, I usually keep them separate for 1 week. Completely shut down that nest, cleaning out any traces of broken eggs. I have 9 nesting boxes, 3 in each row, and when I have to shut down one of three, all three go down and I just open another set of three. I havent really had much of a problems with egg eating over the years because this system seems to work. If its an outside nest, do the same thing, clean up all evidence of the nest, I usually replace the nest with a heavy object. They soon will make a new nest. After several months, I will open up the nest again. Good luck Someone else posted boredom as the results of egg eating.............. possibly, but boredom usually comes from them being confined and when that happens, I have notice them pecking at each other more. I usually hang heads of cabbage for them to peck at to relieve boredom and entertain them. I just know that once they get a taste for it, they continue to break and eat them unless you nip it quickly. Best of luck!

 

[barred-rocks-rock]

Fill some eggs with mustard or Hot Sauce

 

[NewChickens]

Thanks for all the advice. I ended up taking the golf balls out and just grabbing the eggs right after the hens have laid. Everyone seems to get done laying by 10 am. I'm still waiting on my buffs to lay haven't seen them around the nesting boxes. My 3 Barred Rocks haven't started, but they are only 19 weeks old this week.