Unorthodox (and slow) egg-eating cure

[lleighmay]

Late last summer/early fall it seems that all my idiot chickens decided eggs were edible, despite my best efforts at deterence (including extra protein over and above their already extra protein, blown-out eggs stuffed with various surprises, hanging around the coop whenever possible like a deranged ninja so I could snatch eggs almost before they hit the shavings in the nest boxes, etc.). Once they molted and then took the whole winter off from egg-laying despite my "chicken and dumplings" chats I was prepared for the worst this spring when they started laying again. Much to my delight they've been laying steadily for a month now and seem to have forgotten that eggs are edible! I'm thrilled because several of them are special pets who will be here until old age and I really didn't want to cull them but I had become very discouraged feeding a bunch of free-loading feather dusters without any return. I'm still ever-vigilant but thank goodness the tide has turned

 

[RidgesideBeauty]

Quote:
Love it!

 

[OlyChickenGuy]

I'm glad to hear your method worked! If this happens again, though, perhaps a more personal approach is needed? I train chickens professionally, and had one hen who taught the others to eat eggs! My method? Teach her that eggs are horrible, awful things to be avoided at all costs. Or at least, ignored. When I caught her pecking at another hen's egg, I gave her a swift, hard "peck" with my index finger right on her head. She went for the egg again, so another poke / peck ensued. This went on a bit until she left the egg alone while I was there. I took my hand out of the coop, and the was on that egg, so more pecks on her head. This went on and on until I could sit on my bed and she would ignore it. Awhile later when I found her pecking at another egg, I used the egg itself to peck her, but I do NOT recommend this technique to be used ALWAYS. To OCCASIONALLY enforce to a chicken that [item] is not to be messed with, you may use [item] to discipline, but that associates the negative feelings with the item itself as opposed to the behaviour. I used this approach early on to begin the discouragement to peck the egg, but from that point forward only "pecked" her myself. It started when she would peck it and grew to the point that if she showed ANY interest in the egg whatsoever, she would be pecked. And now she and the other hens have NO interest in eggs whatsoever! AND it only took about a week to get across. I still can't let eggs lay in the coop the whole day, and there's still a little bit of upkeep to this training at this point, but at least she's not on the egg in an instant anymore!