The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[aoxa]

We have meatie egg eaters.. :| I am not impressed. I normally get about 8-10 eggs a day (until my Pennies start up) and have been getting ZERO... Except from the silkies who are penned... I caught a few hens eating an egg yesterday - but I think the meaties broke it first and were ran off.. I notice a lot of them have yolk residue on them.

You'd think I'm starving them or something... They get 10 gallons of food a day now that forage is minimal! I need to process them and FAST.

Do you think once they are gone, the chance of the hens continuing to eat the eggs will be nil?

I'm hopeful.. I've never had them eat eggs unless an egg was broken. Never had a chicken break an egg on purpose before..

 

[Nickeyo]

Can i just ask what DH means

 

[HollyDuckFarmer]

...

Can i just ask what DH means[/quote
I say "Dear Husband"

 

[Myrth]

We have meatie egg eaters.. :| I am not impressed. I normally get about 8-10 eggs a day (until my Pennies start up) and have been getting ZERO... Except from the silkies who are penned... I caught a few hens eating an egg yesterday - but I think the meaties broke it first and were ran off.. I notice a lot of them have yolk residue on them. 

You'd think I'm starving them or something... They get 10 gallons of food a day now that forage is minimal! I need to process them and FAST. 

Do you think once they are gone, the chance of the hens continuing to eat the eggs will be nil? 

I'm hopeful.. I've never had them eat eggs unless an egg was broken. Never had a chicken break an egg on purpose before..

Breaking egg eating is tough. With some birds I have had success putting wooden eggs in the nests and collecting real eggs as many times per day as possible.


I have read about some people having luck by filling a real egg shell with hot pepper. I tried that - I think the egg eater liked hot food (certainly parrots like hot pepper treats, so it isn't a surprise to me that a chicken would enjoy hot pepper).


With several chickens the wooden eggs helped. A few times I have had to cull.


Good luck!

 

[Leahs Mom]

DH - Dear Husband.

Aoxa...I've heard people on both sides on the egg eating thing. I'll be interested to hear what happens in your situation.

 

[lalaland]

eggcessive posted this very helpful link on the thread about mrs murphy. WHile it does discuss worming with chemicals, there is a lot of helpful info on worms and mention of garlic and acv as a preventative. I've bookmarked it for myself.

http://poultrykeeper.com/general-chickens/worming-chickens

 

[aoxa]

Breaking egg eating is tough. With some birds I have had success putting wooden eggs in the nests and collecting real eggs as many times per day as possible.


I have read about some people having luck by filling a real egg shell with hot pepper. I tried that - I think the egg eater liked hot food (certainly parrots like hot pepper treats, so it isn't a surprise to me that a chicken would enjoy hot pepper).


With several chickens the wooden eggs helped. A few times I have had to cull.


Good luck!

Well I'm culling all the egg breakers, so I sure hope it helps!!

I know I need better nesting boxes.. It's on my very long to do list. :|

 

[delisha]

Heavys are too heavy to set a nest..they break them. They don't break them on purpose. You probably have a young heavy laying now and her weight is making them break. That is about 6lbs of rocking and rolling pressure. And ye, any bird will eat a cracked egg. Many young birds want to lay a nest and they also *test* them for strength by pecking on the shell to see if they pass the strength test. It is a phase and you might have to raise your calcium level. Dump some of your goat milk out for them on the feed.

 

[lalaland]

Aoxa,

I had egg eaters a few years back.
OT advice was to:
salt the nests with fake eggs
close off the two most favorite nest boxes so egg laying changes location
make sure the nest boxes are very cushioned and that you up calcium availablity to decrease liklihood of accidental breakage
fill empty eggshell with yellow table mustard - both as a deterrent and as a way to identify culprit from mustard stains
collect as frequently as possible


the egg eating went on for a few weeks and then just stopped. I gradually opened up the other nest boxes, and eventually stopped replacing the mustard eggs. Now, they did eat the mustard eggs, but not very thorougly.

 

[ki4got]

extra buttermilk? I bought a quart when I started the FF, and have no idea what to do with the rest now...

i'm not getting ANY eggs right now, or I would so something like a quiche or eggs & pancakes, but...

any suggestions please? think stuff for dinner, i'm not into baking much.