- May 6, 2007
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I'm in some kind of chicken disaster right now and I am wondering what the best path to take is. I've got 10 pullets, at least some of whom are laying now (a mixed bag of birds courtesy of MM brown egg layer assortment). One rooster who is older and mostly wanders about and snuggles with the gals at night. When we first started getting eggs we found the roo and a RIR eating a frozen egg once. It was very frozen and looked like it had burst when expanding. I wasn't worried and figured they ate it because it was open.
In the last two days I have had three eggs eaten. The culprits seem obvious because the yellow really sticks out on their white feathers. They seem to be very aggressively eating eggs, sitting by the next boxes, following others in. Today I was going out every 30-45 minutes and they managed to get in and eat the one egg of the day during one of those intervals. I can't be certain no one else is eating them but they are the only obvious ones. The roo has no yolk on him at all, so he doesn't seem to be a problem.
My question is whether I should try all of the tricks in the various posts on egg eating or whether keeping them with the others and trying to change things is just going to allow them to teach everyone to eat eggs. I am very worried about ending up with a whole flock that eats up everything. My son loves these two hens and has been in tears all morning. If I thought that it would be some work but I had a good chance of succeeding then I would try it all. If I am likely to end up with 10 hens eating each others eggs then I can't keep them.
They are all healthy, definitely not overcrowded, eat layer mash and some scratch here and there and regular goodies. They had been on layer pellets but they were very unenthusiastic about the form so I just switched to the mash.
Give me the good, bad or ugly. I just need to know what direction to go. And if anyone wants to tell me that this isn't because I am a terrible chicken keeper I would be willing to hear that as well (let's just say my son isn't the only teary one).
Thanks.
In the last two days I have had three eggs eaten. The culprits seem obvious because the yellow really sticks out on their white feathers. They seem to be very aggressively eating eggs, sitting by the next boxes, following others in. Today I was going out every 30-45 minutes and they managed to get in and eat the one egg of the day during one of those intervals. I can't be certain no one else is eating them but they are the only obvious ones. The roo has no yolk on him at all, so he doesn't seem to be a problem.
My question is whether I should try all of the tricks in the various posts on egg eating or whether keeping them with the others and trying to change things is just going to allow them to teach everyone to eat eggs. I am very worried about ending up with a whole flock that eats up everything. My son loves these two hens and has been in tears all morning. If I thought that it would be some work but I had a good chance of succeeding then I would try it all. If I am likely to end up with 10 hens eating each others eggs then I can't keep them.
They are all healthy, definitely not overcrowded, eat layer mash and some scratch here and there and regular goodies. They had been on layer pellets but they were very unenthusiastic about the form so I just switched to the mash.
Give me the good, bad or ugly. I just need to know what direction to go. And if anyone wants to tell me that this isn't because I am a terrible chicken keeper I would be willing to hear that as well (let's just say my son isn't the only teary one).
Thanks.