Stupid hen and wet eggs

sniffy

Hatching
6 Years
Apr 7, 2013
1
0
7
Well I have 12 Eastern Wild and Merriam turkey hens and I'm having issues with laying, now that its that time of the year...
It seems that since they are all in a mixed flock the hens just couldn't be bothered to find a secluded place to lay their eggs. Instead I'm finding eggs in random high traffic areas. It just seems like they will drop an egg without a second thought. I've put out several clutches with fake eggs to try to entice (teach?) the hens to lay in a bundle as opposed to random places, but without luck. I now have to do an egg rescue search about 2-3 times per day or they will trample the orphaned eggs!

Second issue is that since they are being 'dropped' in any old place, they get wet and soiled.
Do I lightly rinse them? how do I deal with this?
Before I put the eggs in the incubator I put a small date mark on them. Can I use crayon?
 
As far as labeling just use a pencil. I'm not sure about crayons but I know pencils aren't harmful. And if your hens just started laying don't worry it may take a while but they will figure it out... Hope this helps.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom