My hens started eating their eggs!

[TexasVet]

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I've been giving mine crushed shells for years now. Just dump the contents, crush the shell, and toss it in the "chicken snack" bucket. I don't wash them or bake them. And when I find a particularly dirty egg in a nest, I just break it and toss it to the hens. Haven't had a single hen turn into an egg eater.

I really think it's some sort of vitamin or mineral deficiency that starts it, although there may be a deviant hen here and there who just can't resist eggs.

Kathy, Bellville TX
www.CountryChickens.com
(150 chickens and counting)

 

[unaspenser]

Good idea about the golf balls. I will give that a shot. I've never tried roll-out nest boxes. I wonder if I could build them myself...

I am also going to go to the feed store today and talk to them about if it is a feed-related issue.

 

[tulie13]

You need to do BOTH - cure them of the habit by doing the mustard-filled egg and then correct the (possible) underlying deficiency that caused this in the first place. Could be too little protein or too little calcium or both.

Are you feeding them "laying" pellets? Do they have access to some oyster shell grit?

 

[unaspenser]

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Will do.

I'm actually going to have to buy some eggs (gasp) when I hit the store today, and I will certainly do the mustard egg trick when I get home. I have been feeding them layer pellets and scratch grain, and had been giving them baked crushed up egg shell for calcium, also supplemented with lots of bugs from the yard and kitchen scraps. I'm sorry to confess that I had to wait 'til payday to get more feed and that they had been living on other things like oatmeal, a little cat food, kitchen scraps, cracked corn, etc. for a few days.

 

[unaspenser]

I am proud to report that the egg eating has stopped. After going to the feed store and talking to them about my hens I switched them to mixed scratch rather than just cracked corn and 18% instead of 16% layer pellets. I did do the mustard on the cracked egg and it worked a treat! My Dorking is now laying almost daily, but both my Andalusians have started to molt! This is my first time molt experience, as I bought these girls last September just after they molted. Anywho, I will keep making sure they get plenty to eat with kitchen scraps as a supplement.

Anyway, thanks for all your advice. I had heard that once a hen started eating her eggs there was no way to stop it. You guys are awesome!

 

[norcal]

I will be doing the mustard trick tomorrow. How exactly to you "blow" an egg?

I remember doing fabrage eggs in grade school, but don't remember the process.

 

[cmom]

I agree with the other posts. I use golf balls in my nest boxes. Also not long ago some of my birds combs and wattles looked pale and my eggs production dropped off. Also I noticed some fowl pox. I started them on vitamins and electrolytes. The fowl pox has cleard up and their combs and wattles are now bright red again and their egg production has picked back up. I have seen the birds eat soft shelled eggs but they had already broken.

 

[chickenbottom]

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thats great glad to hear

 

[chickenbottom]

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you poke a hole in one end and in the other and blow thats about it

 

[alaskafarmgirl]

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you poke a hole in one end and in the other and blow thats about it

Just another trick, unrelated, I use a push pin to make a hole in the round top of the egg before boiling. Add a little salt to the water, cool off quickly with cold water after hard boiling, and start peeling from the round top -- shells just come right off of the freshest eggs. Works every time.