Not happy with a hen! Barnyard Bully? Or Hapless Hen? (Pic of Perp)

[pookiethebear]

I was always told once a chicken starts eating raw eggs that they will not stop and it is time to get rid of it.

 

[WriterofWords]

Will they eat their own too? I've decided to make a separate pen for Big Foot and Mondo and keep them on their own but together for awhile. That way maybe they can come out and play after the others lay. I hate to do it to them, especially since it's just Big Foot doing it, but I also don't want her alone.

 

[sred98]

Once they start eating eggs, they will keep on, no matter whose egg it is, even their own.

I don't know of any way to break one of it, or if you even can. Maybe someone here would have some ideas. I think the best thing would be to either pen her up or get rid of her. Sorry this happened. I'm glad you caught her so you realized what was happening.

Shelly

 

[WriterofWords]

My son is going to try "Aversion Therapy" this morning after I go to work. He's going to hide and zap her with a water gun when she goes after his bait,,, a store bought egg.

 

[SpottedCrow]

I wouldn't do anything rash yet...
I had Slifer smash Obelisk's three eggs flat, but she didn't eat them...it might be a Brahma thing...because they're so heavy.

Leghorns seem to be the worst for new birds...Obelisk tortured Penny for like 6 months before she got it through her air head that she wasn't going anywhere and Momma was getting PO'd about it.

 

[WriterofWords]

I'll try anything before I get rid of anyone,, I hate to see one of my kids leave because they can't play nice. If she was just destroying them she'd be in deeper doo,,,, but since she eats them I feel like she's missing something.

 

[SpottedCrow]

She might need a bit more protein...scramble up an egg or give her some catfood...I was giving TenderVittles to my girls when they were moulting...but I can't find that anymore...so the teeny cans of Fancy Feast were good.

 

[WriterofWords]

I think you hit something there! Steven just told me as we read this that she's been eating Pudster the outside cat's food.

 

[KellyGwen]

Do you all think it would work if she put a few ceramic or hard plastic eggs in a nest in the new pen (or oin the nests on the front porch)? Maybe over the next few weeks she'll get sick of pecking at something that doesn't break? Or maybe get one of those plastic eggs or a taped together real egg that she CAN break open and fill it with bag balm or something gross?

 

[Davaroo]

I don't believe egg eating is due to a lack of protein in the diet. It might be, and it is always mentioned when the subject comes up. But it isn't substantiated that I know of, and the habit can begin in normally healthy birds who are given adequate protein. I suspect it's telling has as much to do with our loving a good story as anything else.

Tradtional thinking on egg eating is far simpler and is due to two habits of the average chicken:

1. Pecking at everything in sight to test for edibility.
Watch them sometime; there isn't anyting that isn't tested with that rapier-like beak to see if it can be eaten. Let a speck of poop, a clingy feather or an insect get on the egg and a hen spot it and, voila! - the pecking commences.

2. Being generally clumsy oafs in the nest.
Laying hens are not know for being graceful in the nest. They stumble and trod and crowd each other to the point that eggs are often broken. Once that occurs, the hen reverts back to number 1 above and the Inner Joys of the egg are discovered...

If a hen does start egg eating, it can quickly spread in a flock, since chickens watch each other closely - what one does, the others are gonna do. This is especially true when it comes to food.

You will hear all sorts of colorful, fun-to-tell "remedies" for egg eating. Everything from hollowing out an egg and filling it with red pepper or something nasty (bogus) to placing golfballs or ceramic eggs in the nest (also bogus). But, the things that work best are boring and simply address the above mentioned habits.

1. Darken the nest.
Place a curtain of heavy fabric over the nest and a front rail 4" high across it. Chickens don't move around much in the dark and they don't like to eat when it is dark, either - not to mention they can't see to do so. Place a perch rail 3" in front of the nest so the hen can peer in, satisfy herself that all is well and then go inside. When it's dark, she settles down and does her thing.

2. Make the nest big enough and place soft bedding inside.
Give the hen room enough to maneuver once in the nest by making it big enough and ensure there is plenty of soft, cushiony (and clean) bedding inside.

If all of this is too much trouble, then you can buy or make roll away nests, so the eggs are removed to where the hens cannot get at them. It doesn't really address the matter, but makes it a moot point if the offending hen(s) can't get at them.

Regardless, if egg eating has started you really must get the eggs away from the birds. This means collecting eggs often and early and using rollaway nests. Taking the actions mentioned along with a stringent collecting regimen will go a long way to stopping the behavaior.

But some hens, once they learn the habit, persist against all our efforts. Then, as some will suggest, it may mean removing the hen entirely - either to a new home or the stewpot. That, too, has been a traditional solution to the problem.