Hens eating their own eggs

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Everything has been going well with my chickens and then they started to eat their eggs.

I feed them an organic pellet feed and mixed corn and grain, they have plenty of grit and oyster shell.

I have two Rhode Island Reds, less than a year old and two Buff Orpington's ex battery birds.

They have a shed with roosting boxes to sleep in and free range around the garden in the evenings when we are home.

Any ideas of how I may stop them doing this and why they are doing it?

Thanks Mark
 
Hello, you need to make the nest boxes as dark as possible- also put in plastic or china eggs- you say they are roosting in the boxes? Try and put a perch in so they roost on that- hens sleeping in nest boxes can smash eggs and if any are broken then any hen will eat them- they can't resist. you can try and "blow" an egg and fill it with mustard- then place in nestbox and watch their faces- sometimes works :o Try to collect eggs as often as possible. You can also buy "roll away " nest boxes so they can't get to their eggs-
regards, David :)
 
Orps dont roost well as they are such big birds best on the floor, try to leave out the grain and just do pellets. You could try Apple cider vinigar ( bought from where you get your pellets) in the water its a good all rounder and improves the shell. You will always get one who eats eggs if they can crack the shell, put a egg on the floor and see what they do, try giving them cabbage and grass any greens.
 
If the perches are low and wide enough orps have no problems- they are better and cleaner on a perch than sleeping on the floor or dirtying nestboxes- all my birds perch , you just need to get the correct height and perch thickness.
regards, David :)
 
Seems like I never did reply to these replies - apologies - in the end I necked all my chickens and started again with new birds. The egg eaters taught the other birds to eat their own eggs it was hopeless. I tried everything and I have a nice proper chicken shed so it was just beginners bad luck.

Thanks Mark
 
Seems a bit drastic Mark but in my experience you only learn from your own mistakes. Key points here are that hens must perch -18 inches is best I've found. Sleeping in nest boxes or on the floor even promotes pests. Helps if perches are easily removeable from a red mite standpoint. Nest boxes should be dark -we use rubber car mats cut into strips most of the length so that they get privacy and eggs are not on general display. First sign use pot eggs as they usually get fed up and a headache trying to break them and stop. I have heard of mustard in blown eggs and the hens loved it but pot eggs cured them. Separate the problem bird(s) immediately if that doesn't work, before they educate the others. You may find as we did that she will lay the egg, turn round and eat it immediately and you have no choice but to despatch her.
 
Yes it was not very nice having never done it before but I had no other option if I was to have eggs from any of the birds. I do have a proper shed, perches and dark nest boxes not an amatuer job. I spoke to many expereinced chicken keepers at the time who all advised various methods many of which I tried, mustard pepper and false eggs. They were provided with a proper diet right from the beggining including oyster shell and layers food and corn. Access to free roam outside there were no deficiences.

What I didnt do was isolate the one who started it and that was what I have learned.


Thanks Mark
 
what i heard is that if you put a plant pot in the nest box with hay in the bottom, so the hens lay the eggs in the pots and they cant get them, and the hay will protect the eggs :D
 
true-bantam-mad said:
what i heard is that if you put a plant pot in the nest box with hay in the bottom, so the hens lay the eggs in the pots and they cant get them, and the hay will protect the eggs :D
Click to expand...

That's a great tip! Haven't heard of that one :-)17
 
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