Watching the girls today - egg behavior rambling

[The Lisser]

A couple days ago, one of my free range roosters found a way to get in the coop/run with my LF pullets. (I found the problem in the run and fixed it.) Anyway I had found some cracked eggs before that I think the girls ate, but I usually have about the same number of eggs a day so I didn't think it was an intentional egg eating behavior (it took me a while to finish the dividers between the nest boxes and the girls would kick out all the bedding so they would roll the eggs around before I got a chance to get them.

Well during the rooster invasion, at some point either he or one of the hens discovered how to peck the eggs and eat them. Urrgh!!

This made me step up the nest box construction, so now they have three nicely divided nest boxes with lots of shavings in them so the eggs can't roll out. I put one of the hens (who is one of the oldest and smartest) out to free range since she literally had egg all over her face and I caught her eating an egg with a fresh hole in it. I have been off work the last two days so I've been sitting in the coop watching to see if anyone else is guilty of the crime. (The older hen at some point got her eye pecked by the rooster so I felt bad for her and put her back in the coop with the other girls - I am hoping she will be fine but right now she is holding one eye closed so hopefully she can't get a good bead on an egg. And I am really hoping she doesn't return to her egg eating ways.)

Anyway it has been fascinating to spend this much time watching the girls. I haven't done much "chicken time" with them since the weather got really cold. It's interesting to watch them pace and fuss and jump in and out of the nest boxes before they make their deposit. They do seem to roll the eggs around a bit and peck at them some, but I haven't seem them actually peck a hole in the eggs so far. Another thing I've noticed, they immediately run to the food after they lay an egg and eat like they're starving. It's also funny to watch them pick up pieces of shavings and hay and put it on their back when they are getting ready to lay.

I've also noticed that when they are doing their pecking order thing, if they pull a feather out of another chicken, they eat it. So I'm now wondering if they aren't getting enough protein. They have free access to layer pellets, mixed with cracked corn (they really seem to like the corn), and I give them treats of cooked egg (that doesn't look like an egg!!), greens, veggies, etc.

Anyway a little rambling while I'm sitting in the coop!

 

[Cosmopolis Chick]

good morning, I haven't had a problem with egg pecking/eating.
I did note one thing in your interesting story and wanted to comment. I had to quit mixing the cracked corn (scratch) in with the pellets because my naughty girls would throw the pellets all over looking for bits of corn.

Now it's pellets only in the feeder and a small serving of scratch thrown into the run first thing every morning.

Yesterday I peeled them a mandarin orange, that was Yum!
Today they're getting some boiled kidney beans.
Tomorrow it'll be oatmeal cooked in the kidney bean broth (ugg! - I mean YUM!)

I get gross (I mean YUM!) brown bananas at the market for 10c a pound and they get some right away and the rest I put in the freezer and half thaw before peeling and throwing in the run. I have always kept brown bananas this way in the freezer to use for Banana Bread. They thaw very quickly and are nearly of mashed consistency. The peels get black but inside the banana is OK.

Neighbors and friends have wanted to 'help' feed the chickens and I have to monitor closely. One lady wanted to give them white bread that had gone a bit moldy. Not only do I consider white bread a non-food but I would never feed them spoiled items. A friend wanted to give them some stale doughnuts - no. No food value there. Just because the girls will eat anything doesn't mean they SHOULD. Oddly one neighbor, with my permission, gave them WHOLE raw carrots. I told her I don't think they'll want them but in 2 days they'd eaten them all up.

I hope you get some good replies and I hope it never occurs to my girls that there is something good inside those eggs!
Donna

 

[Judy]

I agree, scratch is chicken candy. I don't even have any right now, I'm using BOSS and a wild bird seed mix for scratch/treats. Feather eating generally means protein deficiency, and you probably know there isn't much protein in scratch, which is usually mostly corn. A can of canned mackerel and maybe some meat scraps would give them a bit of a boost. Mine love things like the bone out of a roast or a chicken carcass; they pick them clean.

 

[The Lisser]

Thanks for the info! I am going to wean them off scratch. I did change how I fed them a few weeks ago because they were tossing out the crumbles to get to the corn - I switched to pellets and deeper feeders. I give them eggs/meat every week but I guess the corn cut their protein intake too much. I'm going to have to modify my nest boxes so they will be roll-away boxes, since I found another one of the rascals eating an egg when I checked them after lunch!!

They all look healthy and the eggs (that they don't eat!) are fine so I'm glad I caught this problem before it lead to anything worse. While I do want the eggs, I also love the chickens, so I wouldn't get rid of them b/c they are egg eaters. Thank goodness for BYC search feature - I found some good info on roll-away nest boxes.

 

[joanc]

I would also put some golf balls or wooden eggs in the nests for a while to fool them if they are going after the eggs. If they peck at something they cannot break/crack they may lose interest in pecking at the real thing.
Good luck.

 

[Paisaneaux]

My friends' chickens rush to eat eggs that the others lay. He just discovered this a few days ago, and asked me to research it.
His nest box is 8' long, with no dividers, and 6 holes cut into the front of it. He plans to build dividers, and I'll suggest a bit more protein in their diet.
There's a pond 30' from the coop that gets covered in duckweed. I've read that the stuff is very high in quality proteins and can be used for up to 40% (If I remember correctly) of a chickens diet.
Do any of you have experience with duckweed as a chicken feed?