roosters and hen laying problem

[Cynth]

A couple questions. The other day one of my eggs ws broke because a rooster pushed a laying hen out of the box in the middle of laying so she laid on the floor and the egg broke and some fo the other chickens do as chickens do and ate some before it could be cleanned up. in the last day we have had 3 eggs eaten. I have 30 hens, roosters and guineas in there and they have been together for about 4 months since birth (most of them except for a few baby guineas). They have been free range up until tw days ao when we got the hen house completed and I want them to be in there at night so we are keeping them in for about 2 weeks so they know where to lay eggs and also where to sleep at night. We were sick of losing chickens to skunks during the early morning so our chickens will be free range for a couple hours a day after a couple weeks. We also discovered we have not one layer but two now since they were in stalls.

1. why does a rooster push out the laying hens or share a nest box with them?

2. how can one tell which chicken or chickens are eating the eggs?

3. I was reading this can stop so what do you think? does egg eating stop?

4. Should I just keep my two layers separated for a while? I have to figure out who the other layer is though.

5 Does anyone else trim roosters beaks to help with the rooster not hurting the hens? My silkie rooster tries to mate with all the chickens but he is not agressive nor does he hur them.

 

[Cynth]

bump, seriously in 2 minutes you could be on page 14 of recent posts.

 

[teach1rusl]

Quote:
1. If a rooster is in the nest box with the hen, that generally means he is trying to be supportive. A hen may leave a nest box if she wants privacy and he's invading her space - that's probably what's happening rather than him running her out intentionally. Unless you have actually observed a rooster chasing a hen out????

2. You can't tell unless you find yolk or shell bits stuck to their beaks. That doesn't mean they're eating eggs from the nest though - as you said, they may just be eating ones that have cracked open on the floor.

3. If it's a cracked egg they're finding, I don't think they'd necessarily go after a "good" egg. If you have one who does go after good eggs, just be sure to collect eggs several times a day so they don't have as much chance.

4. Spend a few hours Saturday morning observing your chickens - it'll tell you a lot.

5. Some roosters are just rougher than others. Some roosters barely mess a hen's feathers and won't mate with a hen who isn't willing, while others chase down and bully into submission anything that moves. You can get hen saddles/aprons for your hens if they're losing back feathers. I don't know that there's a lot you can do about the head/neck feathers though, as that's generally where all rooster grab hold. You may just have rough roosters. Is your hen to rooster ratio appropriate?? Close to 10:1????