Chicken egg issues?
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Polly is our Easter Egger. She totally stole my heart. She was 3 days old when this was drawn.
Question by Luna: Chicken egg issues?
Hello,
I have two pet chickens in my backyard, and they keep eating their eggs! Which is quite brutal because I am sopposed to be getting 2 eggs a day! Its not like their starving or something! They are fed quite well! And I know they are laying because every time I go out there its always freaking egg all over their faces! But no, I shall not slaughter them. Whatever it takes. So anyway, yeah, eggs. So if you know how to stop these little fluff balls from eating these eggs then yeah, dude, that would be cool.
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2 Responses to Chicken egg issues?
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This can be a difficult habit to break. The best thing you can do is to take the eggs as soon as they are laid. How deep is the litter in the nest box. Add enough shavings to make it 6 inches deep. The eggs will get lost in the litter and the chickens are less likely to break them. Another thing you can do is to empty an egg. Punch a hole in each end and blow the egg out of the shell. Get some mustard in a squeeze bottle and fill the eggshell with mustard and put it in the chicken coop. The birds will peck at it and won’t like what they taste. Take these steps as soon as you can so the egg eating habit doesn’t get any more ingrained.
winterrules
February 18, 2014 at 7:40 am
Many times egg eating isn’t because of health issues but rather because a hen laid an egg and it cracked (or a soft shell egg) the hen thinks it is strange and then pecks at it. As she pecks at it she finds out that it tastes good and before you know it she starts eating her own eggs and teaching the other birds to eat them also.
What to do with them- you do not have to kill them but you can actually cure the problem. I hear all these people talking about spraying things on eggs and putting nasty food in them. I have never heard of those ideas actually working. Same with spicing your dogs meat so that he doesn’t want to eat it. I though have fixed this problem among my birds with a different technique. I toss in a golf ball (you can toss in a fake egg if you don’t have a golf ball) the chicken mistakes the golf ball for an egg. She will peck at it for a while and then determine that she can’t eat it. Do this for a few days and she should leave her eggs alone. This has worked for me many times and I hope it works for you also. After awhile when she is better you can return her to the coop.
If she still eats eggs- you, can give it some time. I had a few bantams that ate eggs but I couldn’t find their nests to put golf balls in. After a month or so they went back to not eating eggs.
Also make sure that her nest is full of straw or sawdust as the above person said to help prevent breakage of eggs. You can also purchase nesting boxes that are tilted and collect the eggs in a cubby so the hen can’t eat them after they are laid.
If you chickens are eating eggs because of lack of nutrients- then you would know. Their feathers will not be as shiny nor their eyes. They will get sick easily. They will be skinny and show traits of an unhealthy bird.
(I have never had a chicken eat eggs because of lack of nutrients but rather because they like the taste of them)
If you have any questions feel free to contact me via email.
Hope this helps,
Rhode Runner
rhode runner
February 18, 2014 at 7:47 am