Old hens peck and eat eggs of yang generation

[Elena Kh]

I have 2 generations of chickens in my coop. Araucana (2), Black Orpington ( 1) from April 2021 and French Copper Maran (3), Speckeld Sussex (2) from May 2023. I feed them Purina original, Dumor 5 grain scratch, and they have enough Ouster shells . One of them, large, very fat ( Black Orpington) gives cracked eggs, or pecks, and destroys them sometimes. Few weeks ago yang chickens began to lay eggs. She pecks and eats them. May be others eat also. What to do with this hen? Adice, please

 

[rosemarythyme]

Do the eggs she's eating have thin or damaged shells? Or does she cause the damage?

If shells are thin I'd try to fix that first. Is the Purina feed a layer feed or what kind of feed is it? How much scratch are you giving them?

You could use rollaway nest boxes so she can't reach the eggs, or ultimately cull her if nothing else works.

 

[Elena Kh]

I use Layena Layer pellets. They get 8 -10 oz scratch daily, as sweets. She eats eggs with very thin damaged shells, that she lays herself She breaks thin shells and eats eggs from yang chickens.

One more question for you. Should I change the shells in their plate daily or 2-3 times a week?

 

[nuthatched]

I use Layena Layer pellets. They get 8 -10 oz scratch daily, as sweets. She eats eggs with very thin damaged shells, that she lays herself She breaks thin shells and eats eggs from yang chickens.

One more question for you. Should I change the shells in their plate daily or 2-3 times a week?

No need to ever change the shells, they don't go bad.
You are giving way, way too much scratch, cut it out completely for the next few weeks then only give 2 ozs maximum every other day.

 

[rosemarythyme]

No need to ever change the shells, they don't go bad.
You are giving way, way too much scratch, cut it out completely for the next few weeks then only give 2 ozs maximum every other day.

I agree with all this. You never need to change out oyster shell, just add more when it's empty. Calcium should be available all the time, at least while the birds are laying (I simply leave it out all year regardless). I also use crushed eggshell as some birds don't like oyster shell as much, so it gives them a little more incentive to eat it.

You are offering a LOT of scratch. Scratch is not feed and it dilutes down their protein and calcium intake from their actual feed. My flock get maybe 2-3 Tbsp a day total for 10 birds, and that's just to make sure they always want to go into the run when I call for them.

I would cut out the scratch completely (or cut it down a lot), then make sure there's always calcium available as well as the layer feed. I'd want to get the shells to normal thickness first to see if that helps. Picking up eggs more frequently and putting out a few fake eggs like golf balls or ceramic fakes may help too, because she will peck at them and can't break them. Once shells are good rollaway boxes would pretty much be last resort if she still doesn't stop and you don't want to cull her.

 

[aart]

yang chickens

Is this a typo or some kind of slang.....what is a "yang chicken"?

 

[tlcmurphy]

Is this a typo or some kind of slang.....what is a "yang chicken"?

Young

 

[nuthatched]

I a typo or some kind of slang.....what is a "yang chicken"?

Maybe there's yin chickens....

 

[aart]

Young

Maybe, waiting to hear from the OP.

 

[Elena Kh]

Thanks for very useful tips. Feeding with scratch will be stopped. I will add shells only, not change often.

Yang is grammatical mistake. I talked about YOUNG hen, because I have 2 generations.