maggots on eggs in nest?

[clumberfam]

Went to pick up eggs this afternoon and found them covered in little maggots! Recent changes...it's been godawful hot here. I added some straw from a neighbor's place thinking the eggs would stay cleaner in the nest and now this? the only other time I've seen maggots is in a box of eggs that got pushed under some other stuff on the counter and found maggots under one of the eggs. My plan is to totally clean out in the morning but how did this happen? is it going to be an ongoing issue? we're fairly new chicken keepers so am learning lots from this list. Thanks for any help/suggestions.

 

[HeritageFan]

I don’t have chickens but
If that was my chicken flock, I’d go grab them and check them for maggots on their vents-
If they are suffering from fly strike and/ or pasty butt, the flies may be attacking them, and the maggots may be coming off of the hens.
If not, I’d say it’s time to do a deep clean of the coop w some sweet PDZ and/ or DE under your bedding.... at the least....
Please let us know what you find so we can continue to help-

 

[HeritageFan]

Also- please let us know
- how many chickens do you have?
- how big is the coop? Run?
- what do you feed?
- What do you use for bedding?
- how frequently do you clean?

 

[clumberfam]

only 7 hens, the coop is about 4 x 8 (that's their side - they share it with the peas who have a bit more room since they're bigger), the run is 8 x 16 with a playhouse inside where we put their flock block to keep it out of the weather. We did have to separate out one of the hens because they were beating her up unmercifully - she's kinda bald because of it. She lives with the peas now and has a dog house for her 'private' area with a space that is penned off so they can't bother her (they don't anyway). Feed, they get a mixture of layer pellets and all-flock pellets with mealworm treats and they have access to a flock-block all the time. Also free choice oyster shell. There are two water buckets so everyone has unrestricted access to water. For treats they get tomatoes, broccoli stalks, green beans, and generally whatever veggies/scraps we have. They also get hard boiled eggs crushed up occasionally.
Bedding - shavings from Tractor Supply. Only in the past few days have I added handfuls of straw to the nesting area so that's new. I do put Sweet PDZ down on the poop boards in between cleaning but honestly only clean those up and replace them about once a week. Suppose I need to clean more often, especially in this terrible heat. Plan to clear everything out tomorrow, put down a layer of PDZ and new shavings on top. Might do away with the straw since the problem seems to have started when we brought that home. When I saw the maggots on the eggs I removed the eggs and spread lots of salt in the nesting area hoping to dry them up. I know nothing really kills maggots.
The hens are 2 1/2 years old if that helps.

 

[Brooks_]

A broken egg could have attracted the flies. Deep clean boxes as a starting point after a check of the chicken vents as mentioned above.

 

[Happy hen lover]

I would do pdz and toss the straw. I use pdz in poop board and tsc mini shavings in nest boxes.