ideas for preventing egg eating

[Tala]

I have a new problem with an egg eater. One of my 18-month old Leghorn girls has learned to go in the nest box (which is a small plastic dog house with kitty litter bedding) and KICK the eggs against the walls until they break!!!!!

I tried putting in ceramic eggs, but since she's not pecking them open she just plays football all afternoon with the non-breakable ones

I'm thinking perhaps a roll-away nest would help?
Ideas or suggestions appreciated.

 

[sewchick]

Best advice....Get rid of her. Sell her, cull her, or give her away. She will teach the other how to do it and once they start it's almost impossible to get them to stop. I had that problem and tried everything suggested.

 

[redhen]

YUp..i'd get rid of her..

 

[Tala]

I didn't have any problems at all when they free ranged. I guess she got bored one afternoon and learned a new "trick"

At her age especially, I guess I could let her go.

 

[can you hear me now?]

I know they say get rid of her. If you make a roll away box to where they can't get at the eggs there will be nothing to teach the others. I say roll away box. It is the only way to fix it. If you get rid of her you are out the money from raising when there are such.easy solutions. In the near future I am building roll away box as a preventative measure. They will never eat them that way and hopefully I can design it to keep out the blacksnakes.

 

[Mahonri]

Name her Stew and make her that.

Roll away boxes/nests are nice, but I wouldn't chance her teaching the others.

 

[Tala]

can you hear me now? :

I know they say get rid of her. If you make a roll away box to where they can't get at the eggs there will be nothing to teach the others. I say roll away box. It is the only way to fix it. If you get rid of her you are out the money from raising when there are such.easy solutions. In the near future I am building roll away box as a preventative measure. They will never eat them that way and hopefully I can design it to keep out the blacksnakes.

But at 18 months I'm really not getting that many eggs from her anymore anyway so it wouldn't be as much of a loss.
Of course, it's hard to judge when the eggs are disappearing.

I know for fact that there was a brown egg in the box this morning, and tonight it was gone, but there was clumpy goo in the kitty litter, which I'm sure was the egg.
Yesterday I watched her play football with a golf ball in the nest box, kick it around a bunch and then peck the ball to see if it cracked, so I know that's what's happening.
I'll just have to watch again to figure out which girl it was, coz two of them are "twins" maybe I will cage her for a few days to make sure I start getting eggs again before I do anything I can't undo.

I WANTED to hatch some black sexlinks next month, but I'm having trouble collecting enough eggs, thought it was the weather but now I KNOW why!!! I'm annoyed

 

[can you hear me now?]

I.can see why you are annoyed but I am pretty sure I read that chickens lay the best during their second year. Could be wrong there bit I thought I heard t was more lime peak laying time for.them. I had a black s3link that layed about an egg a day for something like three years five or take a month or two. It is your choice but if you can g3t them eggs away, she will not be able to teach anything.

 

[kathyinmo]

I read this somewhere .... and I can not recall where ....

Take an egg and blow out the contents. Fill it with some kind of mixture to include "Apple Bitter," found in the equine section. Mustard and other things have been tried (unsuccessfully) but due to the taste buds of chickens they do not dislike hot things (cayenne pepper, etc). Anyway, the apple bitter is suppose to work. I guess it would be worth a try.

 

[can you hear me now?]

Quote:
thought I read that somewhere too now that I see it. Just had to ask where in SW Missouri are you at. Don't get to see a lot of fellow missourians on here. Even if I am not.native I call this home and will live here till I die.