Should we try to adopt a neighbor’s chickens?

[jus10inla]

Fwiw ive heard fill up an egg with mustard or make a concrete egg. They wont do it but once lol

 

[alinas2010]

Seems to be resounding that the habit can’t be stopped. It’s unfortunate, because I’d like to give them a better life, but I’m not willing to make this my problem, either, and risk my flock harmony. I wasn’t aware that egg eating was that hard of a habit to break. Thank you both for your input!

 

[PaperChicken]

If my white leghorns lay an egg that cracks when it hits the floor, they will eat it everytime. If they lay an egg that does not crack, they never bother the egg. I have never found an egg that was slightly cracked and have witnessed the yellow spot where it was eaten. I have used a bare floor and bedding materials so there is a difference in cracked and eaten eggs between the two. I have on multiple instances dropped an egg while gathering and it cracked with a distinct sound and here they come running to eat it and have had to fend them off like vultures. I have had a lot of generations of white leghorns and they have always been like this.

Maybe the owner does not use a bedding in the nest so they crack easy? Maybe they are so used to eating eggs that the habit can't be changed? Chickens are like monkey see, monkey do so I would expect your birds to take up the habit too if they witness this.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

I’ve had hens that ate eggs, but only occasionally, when the eggs were broken in the nest or had very weak shells. For the most part they didn’t eat their eggs as long as the shell was normal.

 

[Chicken poppy]

This is a very bad habit, and I don't think there is a fix. For this reason alone, I would not get them.

I’ve heard filling the egg with something they dislike, i hear many people fill an eggshell with mustard and they end up breaking the habit. Keep in mind I’ve never had an egg eater myself (they have eaten eggs broken, but not broken the egg to get to the insides),

 

[Chicken poppy]

Really? Why do they start?

When a chicken realizes how tasty it is inside, they might start breaking the egg to get to it.

An egg eater isn’t a very common problem. I own a black sex link (MASSIVE foody. Obsessed with anything and all things food, including things that are not food like styrofoam.) She loves, loves, eggs. She has laid eggs on the roost and they have broke open, she’s eaten the filling. She’s also eaten them when others have laid eggs and they break. Never before has she broken an egg open though.

If your chicken is laying fragile shelled eggs a lot this can cause them to bust when being laid, then they often eat it. If they keep laying these fragile eggs, they keep eating. Eventually when the eggs get stronger, they break it on purpose..

 

[Chicken poppy]

Okay. Give me your good and bad integrating stories. I need some insight.

One of our neighbors has 3 hens about a year old. I think they are 2 RIRs and 1 leghorn (I think). He complains that they eat their eggs and he doesn’t interact with them much. They’ve just barely been aloud to come out of their tiny coop/run and free range the yard. He kept them locked up until a couple months ago. It breaks my heart he could keep them locked up in their small area. They’re chatty and come up to us when we talk to them through the fence. I don’t think they’re super tame, though. He talks about eating them because they don’t get enough eggs from them, (due to the hens eating the eggs.) I have a feeling he doesn’t give supplemental calcium. One of them is also looks to have bumble foot that I don’t think they treat.

We’ve considered offering to take one or all of them, possibly, and integrate them into our flock. I think he would go for it in exchange for eggs. Is this a bad idea? We have 4 hens right now that are 7 months old. So that would put us at 7 hens. We have the room and the time to dedicate to them. I just would hate for it to be a disaster and really stress out our girls. We have a 8x8 shed converted into a coop and a 20x8 run. We live in a small city with a medium size back yard ours “free range” in. So I think there’s enough room, at least. Maybe it’s not. Someone help me.

The animal lover in me wants to try to save these girls and give them a good life, but the other part of me says to not bite off more than I can chew.

Anyone have advice or stories about adopting more chickens? What amount of chickens becomes overwhelming to care for?

Im going to answer this because i never had luck mixing my chickens. They all fought, some were older then the others so they beat the younger ones up. It was always a mess. But now their one flock, its amazing.

Heres my advice to you.

Don’t intervene. Pecking orders are natural. You might feel bad because their biting eachother, but keep in mind that they will be terrors at first, the best thing to do is let them work it out themself. Of course, intervene if it gets nasty, and don’t jump right ahead. Be slow and let them hear, then see, then touch.


This is the best advice i can really give, i hope if you decide to do it, it works out well.
I wouldn’t do one, by the way. If it doesn’t mix well at first which it probably wont, you wouldn’t want that one lonely. Atleast get 2 so their not lonely, then when they finally get mixed together, no one is the awkward duck.
Trust me, its really sad to only get one. I had one and she just kept getting picked out for being the new flock member, when i had to seperate her for a bit (it was necessary, i needed to separate her for disease and i was taking it slow) she got so depressed it was heart breaking. All she wanted to do was be with them, she would sit in the corner looking at the mirror all day, and she wouldn’t go out unless the others were out there to.

So if your considering getting some, get more then one.

 

[alinas2010]

Maybe the owner does not use a bedding in the nest so they crack easy? Maybe they are so used to eating eggs that the habit can't be changed? Chickens are like monkey see, monkey do so I would expect your birds to take up the habit too if they witness this.

That would be a nightmare if my chickens picked up that habit. I was thinking because his chickens were kept cooped up, they got bored enough to eat the eggs. Then I thought maybe they weren’t getting enough calcium so they ate them. Now after hearing from everyone, I’m thinking it’s more than that.

Im going to answer this because i never had luck mixing my chickens. They all fought, some were older then the others so they beat the younger ones up. It was always a mess. But now their one flock, its amazing.

Heres my advice to you.

Don’t intervene. Pecking orders are natural. You might feel bad because their biting eachother, but keep in mind that they will be terrors at first, the best thing to do is let them work it out themself. Of course, intervene if it gets nasty, and don’t jump right ahead. Be slow and let them hear, then see, then touch.


This is the best advice i can really give, i hope if you decide to do it, it works out well.
I wouldn’t do one, by the way. If it doesn’t mix well at first which it probably wont, you wouldn’t want that one lonely. Atleast get 2 so their not lonely, then when they finally get mixed together, no one is the awkward duck.
Trust me, its really sad to only get one. I had one and she just kept getting picked out for being the new flock member, when i had to seperate her for a bit (it was necessary, i needed to separate her for disease and i was taking it slow) she got so depressed it was heart breaking. All she wanted to do was be with them, she would sit in the corner looking at the mirror all day, and she wouldn’t go out unless the others were out there to.

So if your considering getting some, get more then one.

This was one of my worries about taking only one of them. Really I want the leghorn, mostly, but I wouldn’t want her to start getting bullied and be lonely, as you’ve said. Thank you for your story, I will probably not be looking at taking one as an option now.

 

[littlecoopnextdoor]

it sounds like your neighbours chickens are bored, maybe not fed enough calcium and have weak eggs. I bet if they're better taken care of and stimulated with other chickens and a big run, they likely won't eat eggs? just hypothesizing.

 

[alinas2010]

it sounds like your neighbours chickens are bored, maybe not fed enough calcium and have weak eggs. I bet if they're better taken care of and stimulated with other chickens and a big run, they likely won't eat eggs? just hypothesizing.

See I was thinking along this line, also. I don’t think I have enough experience with chickens to know for sure that we would somehow be able to fix the egg eating issue, though. From what others say it’s hard to break and I would hate for my girls to take on the habit.

Such a big decision to take on adult, established chickens. I wish I didn’t have to see them all the time, it only makes me want to take them more!