Should we try to adopt a neighbor’s chickens?

[IdyllwildAcres]

No luck getting them to stop

Nope, I cull egg eaters

 

[Chicken poppy]

I'm not sure why they start.

I just wanted to add something:
Mine started due to mostly soft shelled eggs. If eggs become broken, for example, being soft shelled and broken due to hatch, or being laid while on the roost, causing it to break. Chickens will begin to eat, sometimes the layer of the egg will eat it. When its not soft shelled, they don’t know the difference and still eat them.
I thankfully was able to break mine by collecting eggs, never feeding eggs raw again, and swapping ones sitting out for wooden. Thankfully, i broke her of it. I think i was able to due to her not being in this habit for a long period of time, however, i’m sure it gets worse the longer it goes on and depends on the chicken your dealing with.

 

[alinas2010]

I just wanted to add something:
Mine started due to mostly soft shelled eggs. If eggs become broken, for example, being soft shelled and broken due to hatch, or being laid while on the roost, causing it to break. Chickens will begin to eat, sometimes the layer of the egg will eat it. When its not soft shelled, they don’t know the difference and still eat them.
I thankfully was able to break mine by collecting eggs, never feeding eggs raw again, and swapping ones sitting out for wooden. Thankfully, i broke her of it. I think i was able to due to her not being in this habit for a long period of time, however, i’m sure it gets worse the longer it goes on and depends on the chicken your dealing with.

Thank you. I’m hoping the move stirred her up a bit, plus new surroundings, different feed, etc. and I have the time to dedicate to collecting eggs often. I know others have said it’s hopeless, but I would like to try and if I can’t figure something out. And if we can’t and she still ends up being an egg eater, I think I’d try some roll away nesting boxes. It’s worth a shot, she seems to be a sweet little hen.

 

[littlecoopnextdoor]

Thank you. I’m hoping the move stirred her up a bit, plus new surroundings, different feed, etc. and I have the time to dedicate to collecting eggs often. I know others have said it’s hopeless, but I would like to try and if I can’t figure something out. And if we can’t and she still ends up being an egg eater, I think I’d try some roll away nesting boxes. It’s worth a shot, she seems to be a sweet little hen.

I have hope that new surrounds and friends and good high quality food and enrichment can put her on the right path!

 

[FC16]

Thank you. I’m hoping the move stirred her up a bit, plus new surroundings, different feed, etc. and I have the time to dedicate to collecting eggs often. I know others have said it’s hopeless, but I would like to try and if I can’t figure something out. And if we can’t and she still ends up being an egg eater, I think I’d try some roll away nesting boxes. It’s worth a shot, she seems to be a sweet little hen.

Absolutely worth a short, well done for saving her that’s great

 

[kmpcfp]

Egg eating is definitely a bad habit and it seems to be a learned behavior from other chickens beginning with accidental egg breakage or boredom. I have managed to curb the behavior in my flock by collecting eggs 3-4 times a day, putting a layer of artificial turf under the shavings in the nest boxes and giving them extra scraps/treats in the run when they can't free range (lots of aerial predators here). Extra calcium supplement with their regular layer feed gives the eggs nice thick shells that I harder to break. I now only get an eaten egg once a week or so out of 15 layers now. In years past it was 3-4 a day.

 

[Chickengeek2020]

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?

You can break them of that habit. I have about 20 hens, and at one point every one of them were eating the eggs. I put golf balls in the egg boxes (it hurts their beaks when they try to peck them) and collected the eggs as often as I could, while also offering extra calcium (such as grit and very crushed up eggshalls) and giving them extra stuff to do around their yard. After a little bit they quit eating them. It's sometimes caused by bordem.

 

[alinas2010]

You can break them of that habit. I have about 20 hens, and at one point every one of them were eating the eggs. I put golf balls in the egg boxes (it hurts their beaks when they try to peck them) and collected the eggs as often as I could, while also offering extra calcium (such as grit and very crushed up eggshalls) and giving them extra stuff to do around their yard. After a little bit they quit eating them. It's sometimes caused by bordem.

I’m hoping this will be the case for us. She laid an egg from the roost early this morning and didn’t touch it. So that’s good. I’ll just be keeping an eye on her and hopefully she isn’t too bored here.

 

[alinas2010]

This is her. No name yet. We had some squabbling this morning and bloody wattles, so she’s in a little kennel right now. I’m going to place her in a bigger one when I can dig it out of our spare room and place it in the run. I really really hope they stop fighting, I want this to work!

 

[Chicken poppy]

This is her. No name yet. We had some squabbling this morning and bloody wattles, so she’s in a little kennel right now. I’m going to place her in a bigger one when I can dig it out of our spare room and place it in the run. I really really hope they stop fighting, I want this to work!

Rosy would be a cute name. Just a thought.

Mine always do that with newcomers, but don’t just pop her in and hope for the best. Let them see her but not touch her. Then, supervised, slowly move her in with them, eventually letting her sleep with them.