Oh, NO! Raw egg eating chicken!

[alaskafarmgirl]

I have taken a completely new attitude after reading this and other posts about egg eating. I used to put mine out to pasture, literally, and let nature run its course, but after reading some of the ideas on this forum, I changed my approach. My hens were born on March 10, 2010, raised together, and the egg eating seemed to be at the very beginning of their egg laying, which alarmed me to no end. But I've realized that they were house cleaning, eating the soft-shelled eggs, and no hen seems to be at all interested in the egg eating these days. Mine have grit, oyster shell, laying pellets/crumbles, scratch once a day, and free range for a couple of hours in early evening. From 11 hens, I get between 8 & 11 eggs daily -- none are being eaten. But I'll be doing the mustard thing if it happens in the future!!! Thanks everyone!

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[sheaviance1]

I have heard that blowing out an egg and filling it with dishwashing liquid will work when nothing else will. If i ever encounter egg eating, that's what i'm going to try first.

I don't mean to sound cold, but here in Alaska, it's hard work to keep chickens in the winter.

I can only imagine how hard it must be to raise chickens in that environment.​

 

[chadchicago]

I've had an egg eater for about 2 months now. Tried the golf ball thing, that seemed to help at first but then she figured out the difference between golf balls and eggs. She only touches the white eggs, not the brown. If I can collect soon enough its not a problem. They get tons of scratch/shells. Eggs are hard. None of the other hens do it. Was never a problem in the past 4 years until recently.

I'm down to either making chicken soup or clipping her beak.

Is there any concrete evidence that clipping her beak will cause harm to her? (other than opinions and feelings about it). I figure she's going to become soup anyway so if its not harmful to her I'd like to try clipping beak first.

Any info?

 

[whogroomer]

I've discovered a few things today. My first discovery was that I found my blue egg layer! She's an easter egger called GoldenHawk. She will not lay in the nest boxes, but builds a next in a corner of the coop. However she is the runt of the litter, she is nervous, and gets picked on by the other hens. Especially the barred rock. I only have 5 hens, but they are in a small coop. We have noticed that some eggs haven been getting eaten recently, and I also discovered today that GoldenHawk is the culprit. She literally had egg on her face. I'm wondering if she is getting back at the other hens aggression, through passive aggression? She is also the one that is kicking all the hay out of the nestboxes. I'm not sure what to do, as I REALLY wanted blue eggs, but then she is eating the others eggs. Hopefully some of the suggestions in the post will help.

I put golf balls in there the other day. I'll also try to give more BOSS, oyster shells, etc.

I have been feeding them smashed up egg shells with kitchen scraps (veggies) is that a bad thing?

 

[bjw113]

Well an update on my chicken egg eaters. We had 23 hens and 1 rooster. Rooster was removed from the picture when he bloodied 4 of my hens in a two day period - so down to 23 hens. Had to separate out one hen who had been badly injured by the rooster (large section of skin taken from the back of her head. When this healed she was left with a large bump on the back of her head. We tried without success to integrate her back in with the other hens, but after 4 days, had to separate her back out because they nearly killed her. So, after a few months in an extra large dog crate that was place in the hen house so she could still socialize, she started to eat her own eggs. Don't know why BUT this caused a terrible frenzy in the hen house. Her egg shells were plenty hard, she had access to oyster shell, grit, treats of turnip greens nearly every day. This caused my other hens to start eating their eggs. We used ceramic eggs, tried the mustard trick, went out every half hour to hour to gather eggs. Nothing helped. My DH built the roll-away egg nesting box which seems to be helping tremendously but eggs that are laid on the floor are still subject to being eaten. After I saw a terrific frenzy when my separated hen ate yet another egg, I told my husband that "that was enough". I'm not going to house, feed, water and provide for a hen that is eating her net worth. So freezer camp for her. AND we are now back to a very very calm and serene chicken house. We are yet again gathering 12-18 eggs per day. The calmness is amazing. Sometimes it is the "hardest" decision that really still is the best one. We fought this problem for almost 6 weeks before we finally came to a good resolution. It is also not unusual to pick up 4-5 eggs up off the floor during the day. Not a single one has even a small chip out of it. It was an extremely difficult decision to make to get rid of this hen I had cared for singularly for months, BUT I am happy to say that the rest of my girls are so peaceful again, it makes me happy again with my decision to have chickens! Hope this added a little more insight and another side to this egg eating saga! Best wishes with your girls!

 

[skybluskyblue]

Is clipping the beak cruel? I worked at an avian veterinarian and they would trim beaks all the time. I guess it depends on what you mean by "clipping" --if it just the very tip [sharp part] and you use a fingernail trimmer, it would be no worse than trimming one's own nails. Right? The stuff that factories do to chickens IS cruel tho'.

 

[spiritdance]

No, clipping the very end of the beak is NOT cruel! It is keratin, just like our fingernails, and also like our nails it has no blood supply or nerve endings. People get all excited about this because they confuse trimming with "debeaking" ... it's NOT the same thing! Debeaking removes a substantial portion of the beak that DOES NOT grow back, whereas tipping only removes the excess keratin at the end that the birds would wear down anyway if they were in the wild chewing at bark, moving rocks around, etc. This material grows throughout the bird's life, and in fact, if this portion of the beak gets overgrown it can cause feeding problems and lead to feather picking by interfering with normal grooming habits. Its sharpness on a roo can also lead to serious skin damage on the hens when he breeds them. Trimming a chicken's beak is no different than trimming any other bird's beak .... parakeet, cockatiel, etc. ... and avian experts, including vets, will tell you that it is not only okay but sometimes necessary for the health of the bird and the flock. But don't take my word for it. Here are a couple of links that might be helpful for you in this issue:

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=15+1829&aid=2752

http://www.browneggblueegg.com/Article/TrimBeak.html

http://hubpages.com/hub/Trim-Chicken-Beak-How-When-And-Why

 

[KathyK]

I'm not sure if I have an egg eater, or a hen laying lots of shell-less eggs. My Easter Egger is usually the first to lay in the morning. When I get to the coop, there has often. lately, been egg on the nest box floor. Sometimes other eggs are laid on top of the goo. No broken shells at all. (Wouldn't there be a few broken pieces if it was an egg eater?). Sometimes one of my Delawares is in there cleaning it up. Sometimes the EE lays a normal egg. Today I found a brown egg with a peck hole in it. Nobody was eating on it.

Occasionally, there is an egg outside in the run, but no damage to it.
The girls took a break for the winter, and are getting ramped up again for spring. Not sure if they are working out the kinks and things will resolve, or what. They are 1 year old and started laying last summer. This is my 1 year anniversary with chickens and still have a lot to learn.

They always have oyster shell available. I feed some BOSS most every day. I have fake eggs in the box.
I guess the real question is: Is the EE laying a lot of shell-less eggs, or are the hens eating the shells and leaving the insides?
If she is laying without shell, is there anything that can be done? Oyster shell is present always.
Thanks
Kathy

 

[Xenia's Chickens]

I also discovered today that GoldenHawk is the culprit. She literally had egg on her face.

Don't be too quick to judge. Once an egg is broken, the other chickens will happily share in the bounty.

Sometimes other eggs are laid on top of the goo. No broken shells at all. (Wouldn't there be a few broken pieces if it was an egg eater?).

For 3 weeks now I have had an egg eater in my coop. She never leaves anything behind except the mess on the other eggs.

I really like the suggestion about the thin-shelled eggs. My girls are on a commercial layer diet, free choice oyster shell, and free range about 2 hours a day. The boxes have a rubber mat on the bottom (one of those "comfort mats" they sell for people to stand on when they work on their feet.) and plenty of clean hay. No fighting, they all patiently wait in line until a box is free (literally). I couldn't understand why I suddenly had an egg-eater in the flock. However, I do have one chicken that has laid weird eggs all of her life. See below. They are jumbo sized, and the shell is crumpled/wrinkled. It looks soft, but it isn't. However, it isn't nearly as hard as a normal egg.

Recently I stopped finding oddball eggs. I thought she was just taking a break after laying all those jumbo eggs. Thinking back now, I realized that the jumbo eggs stopped coming at about the same time that the egg-eating started.
Eureka!

 

[lochiejones]

hi how are you to day i am just asking will a egg from a shop turn in to a chicken