Egg breaking

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ermintrude

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Hi everyone!

This is my first post so be gentle! :o)
I have had my 3 girls (a Bluebelle, a light Sussex and a Blackrock) since Dec last year and so far all has been well. A few months ago I found a crushed egg just outside the 2 nest boxes but the other 2 were in the nest box intact. I guessed it had just been stood on rather than eaten. Then a week or so ago I found an egg that showed signs of the shell being pecked at, but the membrane hadn't been broken, but again the other 2 eggs were fine. This morning it happened again...a completely crushed egg, like someone had stood on it, but the other egg in there was fine. I have noticed that it has been the same hens egg that has been attacked each time. I also noticed today that only one of the hens had some shavings stuck to her foot so guessed she must be the culprit!! I have a theory, but please correct me if I am way off the mark. The 'culprit' is my Blackrock and she is top of the pecking order and lays first. The 'egg victim' is the Bluebelle and she is second in the pecking order. Could it be that Bluebelle is sometimes laying before Blackrock and she is breaking her eggs in frustration/anger? Is there a way of stopping this?

Please help!
Many thanks.
 
Hello, no, she is not breaking the eggs in anger- how many nest boxes do you have? do they all use the same one? eggs can be broken when they are trying to use the same box at the same time- even the least dominant will stand her ground in the box and the eggs are easily broken- once broken, any hen will eat the egg. Try making the nest boxes as dark as possible.
regards, David
 
In addition to Davids post, have you noticed a lot of magpies/crows around your garden? They are notorious for nipping in dragging eggs out or eating them in situ, we have a lot of problems with them this time of year.
 
There are 2 nest boxes, but they do have a favourite they all like to use. They are pretty good at waiting their turn usually, but then we all run late once in a while! With regards to making the nest boxes darker, a lot of light comes in through the large air vent which has a sliding cover, but I don't want to restrict ventilation. Is there any other way of making them darker?
Thanks
 
Some are great scratchers in the nest boxes and sometimes eggs get knocked against the woodwork and get dented or broken. What starts as an accident can sometimes turn into deliberate egg breaking/eating.

Cut up some paper feed bags about the size of the entrance to the boxes and fix it so that it flaps down over the front of the nest boxes (fixed at the top) which will darken them. I would do them one at a time as some times they need time to adjust to going in through the flaps and they don't like change. Cover the favoured box first. What you don't want is for them to avoid the nest boxes and start laying on the floor where the eggs will be even more vulnerable.
 
Thanks Chuck, will try that. No broken ones so far this morning, but they are great scratchers, moving the straw around into a nest shape until they are almost on bare wood, no matter how much I put in!
 
If they scratch around a lot in the straw, I wonder if it would make any difference if you substituted woodshavings, which are softer and don't have the longer stalks of the straw?
Is it possible, with your 3 mixed breeds, for you to tell the eggs apart so you know who lays which one?
Could you perhaps watch to see who goes in first, check her egg is intact when she leaves, mark it so you know which one it is, leave it there, then see who goes in next, and which egg, if any, ends up broken? then you'd know who was the clumsy hen. Not that it would solve the problem of prevention, but it might be a step forward! I'm wondering whether one of them is developing the bad habit of breaking an egg because she's found out what a lovely snack it makes.
 
I find straw is something that makes them scatch more as they are looking for grains in the ears too. So as Marigold says, you could try shavings which is what I use.
 
I think I may have found out why the eggs are being broken! I had a quick peek into the coop yesterday morning and found two of my girls squeezed into the same nest box! They weren't squabbling, just sat there beak to tail quite happiyl, if a little squashed! I left them to it and the eggs were fine when I collected them, but to be on the safe side I removed the dividing board so it was one big nest box. Collecting the eggs this morning, they were both on the same side but unbroken. Looks like it was accidental breaking after all (fingers crossed). Anybody else experienced nest box 'sharing'?
 
Nest box sharing is very common. You can have a row of 6 boxes and find all the eggs in one. The one they lay in can change as well so another day you can find all the eggs in another box ! They can be sensible as well and stick to the rules of one hen, one box !
 
I have 68 Laying Hens, and they split they're eggs between two nest boxes!
I don't encounter many breakages either touch wood :)
 
i know i am a bit late to this post but mine always seem to want to share and 3 birds will try and fit into a plastic post box they are the perfect fit for 1 bird at a time but not 2 or 3 ,lols.
and about 1 1/2 months ago i went though a really bad 9 days of mine eating the eggs as soon as they popped out of the bums i was getting anything from 10 -14 eggs a day but if i could rescue 3 or 4 it was a miracle so i decided to put 2 nest trays on the upper half of the wendy house where its darker and literally over night the egg eating stopped mine go though a stage once a year of eating as many eggs as they can .
 
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