Egg eating

chrismahon

chrismahon

Well-known member
Joined
May 17, 2011
Messages
5,117
Reaction score
40
Location
Gascony, France
We have a rather strange situation with egg eating. We have two Brown English Bantams laying at the moment. One of them is Bluebell, the youngest at 16 months and very much top hen (she replaced Snowdrop). The other is Daisy, now three. We have a single nest box fitted with a curtain. Laying can be a rather noisy affair when Daisy is in because Bluebell keeps disturbing her. Boris the cockerel tried to calm things down for weeks but now has eventually tired of the whole business. Now Bluebell has started breaking open and eating Daisy's eggs which sends Daisy crazy -they are not soft shelled, although a bit thin. When Bluebell lays she leaves her own eggs alone. I've put a pot egg in but Bluebell isn't stupid -she knows which of the two is Daisy's.

I think Bluebell is breaking the eggs because she doesn't want anyone else to have chicks in 'her' nest box. Does that sound ridiculous, or has anyone else had an egg eating problem that could be explained by that motivation. I may now have to build a new end coop panel to somehow fit in two nest boxes.
 
Doesn't sound ridiculous to me, we had something a little bit similar but in our case it was kicking the eggs out of the nest box rather than actually eating them, as we both know hens can be very jealous and territorial at times. Does Snowdrop bully Daisy generally? I only ask as it seems that sometimes one bird can really take against another for no apparent reason well beyond any pecking order issues.
 
No, they seem to get on absolutely fine Dinosaw. That is until Daisy goes into the nest box. Daisy is the one that talks an awful lot when I talk to her and Bluebell is the one that thinks flying onto my shoulder is a big game. They are wonderful little girls, mostly. I tried picking up the other hen, Poppy, a few days ago and am still mending after a ferocious attack by Bluebell. She even attacks Boris if he treads any of 'her' girls. They are a bit weird -well Bluebell is anyway!

Now I think more about it you may have hit on the answer Dinosaw. She can't throw the egg out because the nest box has a 4" strip of ply in front to keep the bedding in, which she kept throwing out. Perhaps she is trying to lift the egg out and breaking it with her beak?
 
I have a Silkie hybrid at the moment sitting on Pekin eggs, I put the hopefully, fertile eggs under her.
Great, you think, wait for it.... Crumpet - Hybrid, is accumulating more and more eggs to her cache. She is not laying, and like yours Chris, there is a two inch strip across the nests boxes. How the heck do the little devils do it? Wish I had a film of all the chickenly effort involved!
 
The only way I can see a chicken pick an egg up to incubate it elsewhere is under her wing Val. But I have absolutely no experience of this behaviour. All our broodies were either broken or put into a secure run and coop unit.

Additional note 3.55pm

Well I'll be …….. Somehow one of our TNN's has got two large eggs underneath her and one was laid in the other nest box!
 
Well the little angels are full of surprises. Daisy has 'lost it' and asserted her authority. She has attacked Bluebell 3 times in the 5 minutes I watched them, clearly to make sure she is not disturbed in 'her' nest box. Daisy is now in laying and to make sure she certainly isn't disturbed, because the racket they are making can be heard for miles round here, I have shut the coop. Of course Bluebell wants to lay now as well, because Daisy pulled her down the steps to the coop to stop her getting in first! We despair and it's a bit too hot to start running about after them -the thermometer says 37 degrees in the sun.
 
what about engineering in a roll away nest box - the base is on a slope with no bedding material and the eggs roll away into a covered area where they can't be got at?
 
It's that time of year again now isn't it Chris, we had top bird Snowy trying to shift the immovable mass that is Goldie out of the nest box this morning by repeatedly biting her comb. She had no success and had to give up and lay in the one immediately next door which was completely empty at the time, but I'm sure that wasn't the point as far as she was concerned, she wanted to be where Goldie was and goldie should have shifted. About two years ago on one crazy day in Spring we had a complete shakeup of what had been a very stable pecking order with Snowy who was bottom bird at the time at no6 moving up to no 2, the no 1 GG moving down to 3 and for about two hours down to 4 and her sister White Neck moving from 2 up to no 1 which was how it then stayed until both Goldlines finally died last summer. It didn't really matter to GG though, she was a lovely bird and her sister always made sure she had top bird rights by chasing Snowy whenever she showed any aggression towards her.
 
Well we managed to get two eggs. When Daisy had finished Bluebell went in to eat Daisy's egg (probably) and lay her own and was locked in as well. The egg was safe in my pocket. But we have had two eggs in that nest box before. There is still a pot egg in there now.

Engineering anything at the moment is very difficult Miless2111s. Although I now have all my tools to hand I have nowhere to work here. The saw bench is right at the back of our house contents storage area, the trailer is full of coop parts rather than being a workshop and getting plywood here is awkward. There are no timber yards like the UK, so you can't just go and buy a sheet of ply. They don't sell it in the DIY stores, only cut-to-size at a premium price. My local woodyard in the UK used to have a chap drive over from France and buy 20 sheets at a time.

I've only noticed the pecking order change during the moult Dinosaw. Never seen laying hens behaving like this. If the Wyandottes started I just moved them into another nest box until they got used to laying in any one. By the sounds of it you spend as much time watching your birds as I do ours.
 
They are such fascinating creatures to watch aren't they Chris, all with their own personalities, behaviours and a complex social system. Having seen what happens when I am there I can only imagine what goes on when I'm not. I have spoken to some other keepers about my chickens behaviour and pecking order etc and they turn round at look at me like I am mad, they just don't seem to see it or don't bother looking.
 
We are lucky now Dinosaw, to be able to sit safely outside our own back door and watch our chickens for as long as we want. Our pet cockerels Bottom can wander about without risk of dog attack -we just have to keep an eye out for Gordon, the resident cockerel who is spoiling to fight someone. He's tried drawing our new chap Zebedee but has failed dismally. Zebedee previously lived with other cockerels and has probably done enough.

Yes I agree with you entirely. Some people can't see what is happening under their noses. Just not that observant I suppose. My sister-in-law used to refer to me as a 'chicken whisperer'. So I guess you are another one Dinosaw.
 
Maybe, try building a roll away type of nest box or you add another nesting box to make it two.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top