I Trust Nature, Letting Brahma Mama Do Her Thing

[MomJones]

She started with 12 eggs, then the numbers began to dwindle. At first I thought it was rats--it can't be snakes because the nights have been in the 30's or even 20's too often. Then I decided she was eating her own eggs. I was furious. Furious!!!!! How can this be happening? After doing a ton of research I came to the conclusion this beautiful girl was not randomly cannibalizing her eggs, but might possibly be eliminating the "dead" ones and/or meeting a nutritional need. So I immediately began making gourmet chicken food for her with lots of crushed shells and trace minerals--I call it "Hen Bread"--and giving her her own little bowl every day to eat from when she got up to take a quick break from sitting.

The egg destruction stopped and she's now in hatch week. We have one live chick, six yet to come out. So that's my take on the cannibalism. All 20 chickens plus "Jefe" The Rooster live in a large enclosed run and are fed 16% Layer feed along with oyster shell, black oil sunflower seeds, chicken scratch, and occasional fresh grass cuttings. They have straw, shade, sunshine, attached coop... the only thing missing is their own television I suppose. Jefe even gets spa baths for his feet.

So in the end, I'm trusting nature. These Brahmas are good chickens and have always been gentle and good egg layers, not very aggressive.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

How are they doing? Sometimes birds fed a 16% protein feed will get deficiencies when you also feed lower protein treats like you do. Birds sometimes turn to egg eating or cannibalism to correct their diet. I recommend feeding a higher protein ration and see if that helps.

 

[aart]

Did you find and egg remains in the nest?
A chicken eating an egg in a nest makes a big mess of the bedding.

 

[MomJones]

Hi all, sorry I haven't been on in awhile. Full time job with few breaks. But I wanted to tell you that I found out it was RATS. I caught a few in the act of running into and out of the brooder pen. We have rats here and I hate every single last one of them. They literally CARRIED off several baby chicks both hatching and post-hatch. I still fume when I think of it.

So my husband and I have set out various traps (4 different kinds) and we hope this makes at least a dent in the rat population. Even resorted to poison in one of them (the traps). The big rooster caught and killed one (yay!). But we'll have to wait and see if there's been an actual reduction in the rat population.

Looking back, I should not have killed the snakes I encountered the previous year. Yes they steal eggs but they also ate rats.

Inspiring Lesson: Throughout what had to be incredible stress for Mama bird (watching her eggs be stolen, her babies taken) while she was trying to protect her young, she remained faithful to the task. She continued keeping her surviving two babies under her wings, clucking steadily to them night and day, showing them how to eat and drink. She never stopped, never gave up out of fright or sadness. She just kept doing the next thing next. I'm humbled by her example and her faithfulness. I wish I had half her resilience.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Rats can be nasty. Glad you got it figured out. We always have to use poison here. Hopefully traps work for you.