Hello from buckinghamshire

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Hog

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Hi all , we have hens for six years now and just got four more. The new hens are Speckled star, White star , Black star , and Rhode Island red , they are nineteen weeks old ,We have a fair big garden with a small woodland arer the hens can Rome. So six hens at the moment. :-)17
 
Hi Hog, and welcome to the Forum for you and your hens. It certainly sounds as if they have a lovely lot of space and freedom. Are the new ones laying yet?
 
Hi marigold no not yet we have only had them since Sunday .two of our old hens hav'nt been laying very well and when they do they have been eating them have you any idea why this is and what I can do to stop this .They are rhode island red and two years old.
 
The nest boxes need to be dark and the eggs kept out of sight Hog. We use rubber mats slit 15mm wide as curtains at the front of the boxes. You could also put pot or rubber eggs in the nest boxes which they try and eat and give up. They often tap the eggs to make sure the shells are strong and sometimes they break. That gives them a taste for egg. We cured one of ours by simply cutting out treats so she ate the calcium enriched layers pellets and that thickened the shells. Of course it may not be the hens eating them -rats, squirrels and magpies can get in and do the same.
 
You can also try roll away nestbox inserts, see http://www.chicken-house.co.uk/acatalog/Rollaway_Nest_Box_Inserts.html
And of course if anyone is there during the day, collect them ASAP.
Trouble with egg eating is that the other hens can learn to do it and then it spreads through the whole flock. It would be good to sort it out with your RIRs before the pullets come into lay if possible.
 
Coincidentally, there's a discussion going on Practical Poultry forum at the moment about roll away nestboxes, see the Housing section on there at http://www.practicalpoultry.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1363863949/14#14
I hope the link works, for some parts of this forum you have to be registered and logged in to see the threads.
 
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