The hens will eat ANYTHING!

[BarkerChickens]

I have a couple egg eaters. It isn't severe (YET), but a few eggs go missing a week (tell-tale sign is the yolk on the eggs).

So, I searched for remedies (trying to avoid dispatching the offender(s)).

Filling an egg with mustard...doesn't work. They like it...A LOT!

Filling the egg with spicy horseradish mustard....nope, they like that too.

Filling the egg with straight coarse horseradish (not the creamy kind, but the kind that a small dab clears your sinuses). They like it...A LOT...and now they breathe well.

So, I tried filling it with spicy brown mustard (just as a base) with habanero tabasco sauce and a homemade chili powder that I make (ground whole thai dragons, serranos, jalapenos, cayennes and habaneros...this stuff is hot, a small amount in a large batch of stew makes a HOT dish..and we like very HOT food, so it isn't for child's play!).

They like that too.

A LOT!

DH is unemployed, so I may resort to fake eggs and him collecting the real eggs several times a day. (We usually collect once a day).

 

[Southernbelle]

Sorry all your remedies failed but that made me laugh so hard!

Hope the eggs they're laying now taste alright.

 

[BarkerChickens]

We may have some spicy eggs for the next few days!

 

[lilblessings5]

LOL- Thanks for the laugh.


Have you tried vinegar?

 

[jeremy]

Do they have proper nesting conditions? My hens were eating eggs and the only thing that solved the problem was giving them actual nesting boxes with plenty of room. I think in my birds case when they would go to lay they would crush the eggs that other hens had laid, then when they say all the ooey gooey stuff they'd eat it right up. I've since enlarged the nesting boxes and the amount of them and now I get 1 egg from each hen everyday.

Hopefully this is some helpful insight. Also, try ceramic eggs. They'll peck at them and not be able to break them open, eventually giving up.

 

[BarkerChickens]

Urban...oh, yea...they have lots of room to lay!! Two 2' x 3' community nests, plus they like to lay underneath and a couple others created nests in two of the corners of the coop. That is for 28 hens. For that many birds, I should only need 6-7 regular nests. They have more than enough room!

I think I will have to try the ceramic or wooden eggs.

 

[rubyrogue]

Chickens(most birds) do not "taste" hot or spicy food, they get the flavor but not the zing. Many commercial parrot foods actually contain peppers. Birds love them. lol, sorry no other help as to how to stop them.

 

[kathyinmo]

I have not had this problem, but I did read an article where someone used Apple Bitter (equine section) in a blown out egg, and it worked. I think it was mixed in with something (but can't remember). Chickens do not have taste buds for hot spicey things like humans do. That is why it is ok to feed them cayenne pepper for other reasons!

 

[BarkerChickens]

Ahhh..... the no taste buds for spicy things sense.

Hmm....apple bitter, eh? I will need to do more research...

 

[mistyfeather]

my freind told me that if you offer them scrambled eggs a couple times a week they will stop, they get their egg fix with the scrambled egg and will leave the raw eggs alone