they were eating an egg...

[City Chicken]

tonight we got home from 4 days away. we had all the chickens in the workshop with food/water but in a small space.
when we walked in they were eating an egg, maybe they had just broken it in the flurry of us getting up.

3 eggs were still there, not eaten.
wondering...

• once an egg eater always an egg eater?
• did they eat it because they were missing the nutrients provided by the grass/kitchen scraps?

biggest thought....

• will they do this all the time now?!

 

[Y N dottes]

hard to tell.....ive had hens eat an egg before, the eggs that get kicked and stepped on first. They have yet to eat one in their nesting box though, so i havent lost any ebcause they ate it, only cause they broke it first.
I'd watch them though. they might have been missing another source of food, hard to tell what they were thinking.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

Hens will eat eggs because eggs taste good. It's not because you're missing an important nutrient or anything. Hopefully it was an accident and they broke it and then, when they went to check it out, found out it was yummy.

If the breakage was totally accidental and they don't associate the broken egg with whole eggs (since hens aren't the brightest bulbs out there) then you'll be OK. Where the real egg-eater problem comes in is when a hen starts breaking eggs on purpose in order to eat them. Keep an eye on them and your nest boxes, and watch for sticky areas and bits of shell. If you find that, then you should check all the beaks very carefully for tell-tale yolk. You should then search BYC for how to rehabilitate an egg eater. I don't have any good advice for you, because I tend to sell die-hard egg eaters instead of dealing with them.

But the good news is that the odds are in your favor that it's a one-time deal.

 

[City Chicken]

i think it was accidental. all eggs have been in tact since! whew!

 

[hen101]

well i dont know if read anything about feeding chickens because eating eegs is good for them i will crush up eggg shells and throw them in the coop and they love them

 

[hen101]

eggs are good for them to eat. i feed my hens crushed up eeg shells all the time they love it

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

well i dont know if read anything about feeding chickens because eating eegs is good for them i will crush up eggg shells and throw them in the coop and they love them

Yes, egg shell can be a decent source of calcium. And yes, eggs have lots of good protein and it's not a problem to feed eggs to hens. But if you have an egg eater that's eating your eggs before you get to them, you've got a problem.

There's a big difference between a person feeding eggs to hens on purpose, and those hens deciding on their own to eat the eggs out of the nest boxes before the people get there.

 

[hen101]

Well f you are just eating them then you can time out when they are laying the eggs and take them has soon as she she lays them that is what we do

 

[City Chicken]

yeah, i don't have time to be hanging out at the coop waiting for the hens to lay. haah. i have 4 kids to keep track of!
however, it appears that it was a fluke, eggs are in tact and not being eaten by the chickens!

 

[hen101]

who is fluke and how did he get the eggs