my thieving otter eggs are in the incubator- need photos of setups please

[PatientType]

I tried the vinegar & water spray. In addition I made changes in the cage to try to disorient the birds and reduce their territoriality. It didn't work. The carnage was so bad that I had to "process" two birds that were seriously injured. I then separated the two sets of birds so there'd be no more warfare. Now I avoid adding adult birds into the flocks.

So far, adding new, pre-pubescent younger birds to an existing flock has been OK. Adding new, very young birds is how I fix any flock gender imbalances, or to increase flock size, etc. I had one of the older hens that tried to actively hunt down and injure the young birds - bloodied two of them a bit - but, she'd been something of a bully previous to that so I "processed" her. None of the other birds were aggressive with the youngsters.

I've found chicks in an indoor brooder to be smelly, too. I put down oil absorbent pads and changed the pads daily. That kept the smell down some. But they poop constantly and there was still a persistent quail smell. We were more than ready to see the birds feather up enough to be moved outside.

 

[PatientType]

update-
i have 4 girls. One is laying no shell eggs. Didnt realize until they were moved to the stack cages.
not sure what to do about it. I have been giving a 50/50 mix of turkey starter and layer. the layer doesnt have enough lysine/meth so thought mixing would be ideal. with oyster shell, but i think i need to make it smaller flakes.
any ideas on containers they dont knock over within a day for the oyster shell?

I had the no shell egg problem & way too many cracked shells. I solved the problem by getting some cups designed for parrots that attach to the cage wire mesh. I purchase oyster shell ground into a flour and the hens eat it out of the cups. They really seem to like it.

I no longer have any issues with cracked eggs or no shell eggs.
The cups look like this... and they're available on Amazon for about $3.50 each. They're about 2" across and 1 3/4" deep. Fill them half full to reduce waste. For six hens per cage, I re-fill the cups about twice a week.