We inherited 4 hens when we moved into our new house. Everything was fine last year - we got about 2 dozen eggs a week. This year, one of the hens started eating her eggs, and that behavior has now spread to one or two other birds. We've tried giving them mustard eggs, I made a special slanted nesting box which rolls the eggs out of reach, but they don't use it. I think their diet is fine - we feed them layer pellets which they seem to be eating. So, besides killing them, which I won't do, what can we do to stop them from eating their eggs?

Do they get enough calcium?

They can also develop a taste for eggs, and also if certain stressors/threats result in self preservation kicking in.

It becomes a bad habit and be hard to break.

Calcium supplement and collect them more frequently.....I have 14 now and so far they are behaving. It’s a difficult problem to correct once they start.....I had a flock years ago that started eating their own eggs but a Fisher cat cured that problem over a couple months.

quote:

Originally posted by cgode:
Calcium supplement and collect them more frequently.....I have 14 now and so far they are behaving. It’s a difficult problem to correct once they start.....I had a flock years ago that started eating their own eggs but a Fisher cat cured that problem over a couple months.

I'm just using the standard summer layer pellets, so I would assume it has all the calcium they need. But I try giving them a calcium supplement. As far as gathering them frequently, one of goes out about every hour during the day to check.

Savage little cannibals!

No clue just this thought made me chuckle.

I've got at least one doing the same thing. If I can catch the little b...iddy in the act, it'll be soup. Only cure I know of.

Make the sloped nest their only nest. They'll likely start laying on the floor or elsewhere, but it might work.

If I can catch them, they go OUTSIDE of the pen and coop.
Good luck. it's tough outside the fence...

emancipate them

My neighbor has a bunch of them and they start making a racket about 5am. Today it was 520am.

In any event around 8 it got nice and quiet. I looked over and there were two huge white tailed hawks sitting on the top of the coop.

quote:

Originally posted by 4x5:

quote:

Originally posted by cgode:
Calcium supplement and collect them more frequently.....I have 14 now and so far they are behaving. It’s a difficult problem to correct once they start.....I had a flock years ago that started eating their own eggs but a Fisher cat cured that problem over a couple months.

I'm just using the standard summer layer pellets, so I would assume it has all the calcium they need. But I try giving them a calcium supplement. As far as gathering them frequently, one of goes out about every hour during the day to check.

I’m using what sounds like the same layer pellets.....not sure what the calcium level is in it but I do collect some oyster shells from the beach and smash them into a powder and sprinkle occasionally....I have no idea if it helps but I have that resource available so why not. Good luck....either cure it or eat the offenders

I need to replace our two egg eaters. Since they have been gone, the eggs are back and the other ladies are happier.

Freezer camp.

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Originally posted by PHPaul:
I've got at least one doing the same thing. If I can catch the little b...iddy in the act, it'll be soup. Only cure I know of.

Make the sloped nest their only nest. They'll likely start laying on the floor or elsewhere, but it might work.

A friend always has chickens. He names every one of them "Noodles". Says they all look alike and all taste like chicken.

Chicken on the grill.

We have a dozen hens. On average we also have two broken eggs a day we suspect have been pecked. Im also curious to see if this behavior can be corrected.

Oh wait, a chicken is the dumbest creature in the animal kingdom...perhaps I find offender and make chicken soup.

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Originally posted by Stlhead:
Freezer camp.

Bwaaaaaahahahahahahahaha!

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Originally posted by mjlennon:
Oh wait, a chicken is the dumbest creature in the animal kingdom..

You haven’t had domesticated, heavy breed, turkeys then, right?

We have 13 of them. Had one that was eating its own eggs, lucky we caught it early and isolated the chicken. Once isolated, it stopped the behavior. We had to rinse and repeat it a couple times, but it seems GTG now.

Everything we read and looked at, basically said if it spreads to the entire flock, nothing you can do about it. Have to nip it early.

quote:

Originally posted by xanth:
We have 13 of them. Had one that was eating its own eggs, lucky we caught it early and isolated the chicken. Once isolated, it stopped the behavior. We had to rinse and repeat it a couple times, but it seems GTG now.

Everything we read and looked at, basically said if it spreads to the entire flock, nothing you can do about it. Have to nip it early.

Interesting. Was she in isolation 24x7? For how long?

Beak trimmer