Stopping Egg Eaters

[The Old Whittler]

How clever! How do you keep the carpet clean?

The carpet looks a lot cleaner in the pics than what it is. I've had the carpet for several years and it was used when I got it. I've only had this nest box setup for 2 1/2 - 3 weeks and so far it's working well. I usually pick the feathers out every day and that's about it.

We're looking at the back with the back off right? My question is how do you collect the eggs? Does the new floor lift up or a door in the front?

My nest boxes are on the outside of my chicken tractor. The back of the nest boxes hinges down giving access to the eggs. The sloped floors can be raised up if needed to get the eggs.

 

[cnvh]

I have a small set-up-- four hens and a chicken tractor-- and last fall, someone started eating eggs. So I built a roll-out nest box... the floor slopes from 3 1/2" high in front, 18" deep total, with about a 12"x12" area for the hens to lay in and the remaing 6" of roll-out space in the back. The floor covering is an old piece of outdoor astroturf-style plastic doormat, cut to fit; it's super-easy to clean, just pull it out and bang it against a wall for all the dirt to pop right off. (If it's really bad, I can take a pressure-washer to it.) I covered the back "lip" of the roll-out area with a piece of foam pipe insulation to act as a bumper. In the 4-5 months the rollout nest has been in there, I haven't found evidence of any egg-eating since.

If I had it to build again, I'd have made the floor a wee bit steeper, maybe out of diagonally-cut 2x6's instead of 2x4's, because about 1 egg out of 20 will not roll out. Not a big deal though-- they're usually far enough back that I can see them and reach them anyway.

The best part? Every last piece I used to build the roll-out box was scrap lumber and material left around in our shed; I didn't spend a dime on it.

 

[Cluckity chicke]

Try Feeding them oyster shells. it won't stop them completly but it will save you a lot of eggs
Personal experience

 

[Cluckity chicke]

oops FAIL LOL FIRST POST

 

[EJPedrazzi]

I've had hens do this and I take out the broken egg, clean it out, fill it with hot sauce or something similarly unappealing to a chicken, put it back in and voila! Sometimes they will still peck through the shell, but this was happening daily so it's definitely slowed it down.

 

[ImaFarmerNow]

It's confirmed. I have an egg eater. I feed free choice oyster shell, but have been getting a few broken eggs in the last few weeks. I had thought that maybe they were stepped on or broken because so many like a few of the nesting boxes better than the others and there were just too many in there. I collect the 1 or 2 in the morning and then as soon as I get home around 3:30 or 4:00 when I get back home. I can't collect any sooner most days. We just aren't home. We have 30 hens (down from the 65 we started with), all different breeds, and get around 15-20 eggs a day. Yesterday I had 3 eggs that large holes were eaten. Now I know it wasn't an accident. I'm not sure who does it though. I tried golf balls to try to get them to lay in the nesting boxes, but they just kept kicking them out. Guess they thought they were bad eggs. I saw someone posted that chickens will eat all of the eggs that get yolk on them as well. Is is possible that I just didn't clean out the boxes well enough when I found the broken eggs before? We have 5 gallon buckets, for most of our boxes. Can I use bleach? That seems like a bad idea, but what do I know? I just started being a chicken mommy around Easter last year, so I'm still learning. Boy! There's a lot to learn. I'd rather not cull anymore if I don't have to. We are pretty happy with our flock now.

Thanks for any advice!

 

[my sunwolf]

It's confirmed. I have an egg eater. I feed free choice oyster shell, but have been getting a few broken eggs in the last few weeks. I had thought that maybe they were stepped on or broken because so many like a few of the nesting boxes better than the others and there were just too many in there. I collect the 1 or 2 in the morning and then as soon as I get home around 3:30 or 4:00 when I get back home. I can't collect any sooner most days. We just aren't home. We have 30 hens (down from the 65 we started with), all different breeds, and get around 15-20 eggs a day. Yesterday I had 3 eggs that large holes were eaten. Now I know it wasn't an accident. I'm not sure who does it though. I tried golf balls to try to get them to lay in the nesting boxes, but they just kept kicking them out. Guess they thought they were bad eggs. I saw someone posted that chickens will eat all of the eggs that get yolk on them as well. Is is possible that I just didn't clean out the boxes well enough when I found the broken eggs before? We have 5 gallon buckets, for most of our boxes. Can I use bleach? That seems like a bad idea, but what do I know? I just started being a chicken mommy around Easter last year, so I'm still learning. Boy! There's a lot to learn. I'd rather not cull anymore if I don't have to. We are pretty happy with our flock now.

Thanks for any advice!

If you want to find the culprit, check for yolk on the beak.

How tall is the "straw guard" on your nest? A taller one might be able to keep the golf balls in better.

Don't bleach anything...

I stopped my girl from egg eating by isolating her with oyster shells for a few hours, so that she could learn what they were, then put them out free choice for all the hens. Then I blew the yolk and whites out of an egg and replaced with hot mustard and black pepper. I isolated her with the egg for a few minutes until she took a peck at it. Then I released her with the flock again. She still has trouble absorbing calcium, but she no longer eats eggs. Hope this helps

 

[ImaFarmerNow]

Quote: Thanks mysunwolf! I'll try it out. I removed the buckets that had eggs in them before and it seem to have stopped. I will not bleach them, I promise! It seems it is always something. Now I have 2 that refuse to get out of their nests, but I don't have any roos. I am learning though and they are fun to watch.

 

[graciesmum]

I have found out wich one of my girls is egg eating, they free range are fed layer pellets and have oyster shell all the time, they also have cheese and mealworms everyday, what do I do?

 

[cookinrana]

IT MIGHT NOT BE YOUR HENS.....I have 8 various breed hens who free range on our property. We recently started getting one or two broken eggs each day. After reading all I could here & on other threads, we left two dummy eggs that were filled with blue colored dish soap. An hour after I let them the hens out, I went back to check on the decoys only to find there was nothing left of them but a puddle of blue on the floor!!! NOT ONE of my girls had a blue beak or any evidence of blue dish soap. We were stumped! So today, we put another dummy egg out and sat in the yard watching the hens for two hours (it's not particularly warm here in northern CA). We retreated to the house where we watched the coop from the sliding glass door. Within 30 minutes, we saw a blue jay go into the coop two or three times...when I went out to check, sure enough, the egg was pecked open! We're relieved to know it's not the hens, but now, how do we keep the blue jays out of the coop???
Our coop is an old metal shed with sliding doors on the front. I usually leave one pulled closed (toward the center) and the other open enough for the girls to come and go freely. I'm thinking I might try some sort of netting that I can lift up & secure on the corner in order to let the hens in and out.
Any suggestions would be appreciated!