NY chicken lover!!!!

[marquisella]

Anyone else battling Boodies with egg breakage? I have lost 10 of 17 eggs set in the last 2 weeks. How do you fix this. I think it is from other hens sitting on the nests to lay.

I"m having an egg eating problem. I put golf balls in the nests, but the BC Marans are still eating the eggs..When I thew the golf balll into the nest almost every chicken, including the roo dove in for it..
Then the roo continued trying to peck it for a while after the hens quit...Either he is very dumb, or very persistant. Took me 3 weeks to figure out why I wasn't getting eggs....talk about dumb!

 

[Tab's chicken obsession]

Anyone else battling Boodies with egg breakage? I have lost 10 of 17 eggs set in the last 2 weeks. How do you fix this. I think it is from other hens sitting on the nests to lay.

DH and I have had to separate our broodies into dog crates with food and water to stop breakage and disturbance. We try to have the crate in the pen so they can see their buddies but not have their buddies bug them.

 

[Framac]

I"m having an egg eating problem. I put golf balls in the nests, but the BC Marans are still eating the eggs..When I thew the golf balll into the nest almost every chicken, including the roo dove in for it..
Then the roo continued trying to peck it for a while after the hens quit...Either he is very dumb, or very persistant. Took me 3 weeks to figure out why I wasn't getting eggs....talk about dumb!

Have you had any luck combating this?

 

[Glasshen]

Just ordered my electric poultry net. Had to justify it to myself for a while. The girls are pretty safe inside their pen, but I want there to be some grass, so they need to not spend every minute there. Just was reading Harvey Ussery's book, and he has the chickens work in the parts of the garden where they could help, kind of between seasons and crops. And they could help with the apple trees. And the net itself could protect the apple trees...

All this justification is why I hate shopping.

 

[Tab's chicken obsession]

I finally have my appointment for my NPIP. I called our tester and she set it up right then.

 

[marquisella]

Just ordered my electric poultry net. Had to justify it to myself for a while. The girls are pretty safe inside their pen, but I want there to be some grass, so they need to not spend every minute there. Just was reading Harvey Ussery's book, and he has the chickens work in the parts of the garden where they could help, kind of between seasons and crops. And they could help with the apple trees. And the net itself could protect the apple trees...
All this justification is why I hate shopping.

I hope you ordered it from Premier, they have free shipping on orders over $100. I ordered a 2nd one from them last week.

 

[marquisella]

Have you had any luck combating this?

The blue copper Marans are good now, but the black coppers are still eating the eggs...I'm at a loss as to what to do now...8-(

 

[Glasshen]

Yes, from Premier. I had been angsting since I know very little about electric stuff, and usually it would need a few little parts that anyone who knows about the product would just know to get...had to talk to a rep then order on line. She said it was all I'd need, so feeling hopeful.

 

[stonykill]

another broody hatched her lil ones

 

[Cass]

The blue copper Marans are good now, but the black coppers are still eating the eggs...I'm at a loss as to what to do now...8-(

I had an egg eater. First I thought they were eating the ones they broke by mistake....yeah, I'm that dumb....then I found some with peck marks in it....so I knew they were eating them on purpose....They aren't eating them any more...what I did, was feed them canned cat food and LOTS of calcium....I didn't put it out free choice, I made a mash of the contents of the bottom of the feeder with warm water and put the crushed egg shells on top of that, on the ground (cuz everything tastes better to my birds if it is eatten from the ground) They eat it up, including the crushed egg shells, not a drop left. I haven't found an evidence of any eatten eggs in almost 2 weeks now.

I sincerely thought that my most recent adult bird additions were the problem...their shells were pretty porous and they didn't lay daily....turns out it was the Lav's....the poor girls are bare backed and trying to grow feathers....Since I added the canned cat food (and not a lot, just what the cat can't get out of the corners of the can or won't finish cuz it's "old" LOL), the mash with eggshells in it and making SURE they have enough water to get them til I am home at night (I wasn't too good at that in the past and came home regularly to DRY waterers) the new girl's shells are much thicker and the feathers are growing back ....and I am getting 8 - 10 eggs a day from 13 layers....or was, until I had 2 go broody on me, so it's more like 6 - 9 a day, but that's still more than I can eat a week. (Heck, that's more than I can sell each week)