My lovely ladies purchased from a neighbor have turned out to be voracious egg eaters. Egg eaters! I can't even tell you how many chickens I have raised and had over the years and I have never had an egg eater. I'm not even sure what to do about it yet although I do realize I have to find out who or how many of these dears are the culprits fast or they will teach it to the entire flock... I hope I'm not to late! How do I know they are egg eaters you might well ask.. Well.. I caught them at it first hand. In fact I had gone to collect eggs and was wondering why I had only gotten a couple a day when I heard that distinctive clucking of a hen laying an egg. I walked into the coop and not seeing any other eggs decided to wait for her to finish and take it with me.
It didn't take long and she was ready to get off the nest box. Just as I reached down to get the egg another chicken beat me too it and started to peck at it breaking the shell. I was so shocked I grabbed the egg and forgot to grab the chicken! Since they all look alike I have no idea who it was now.... Why didn't I grab the offender! I'm still shaking my head over that one.
This morning there are no eggs and I'm afraid they were all eaten but I will be spending as much time as possible in the coop trying to find the offender. Which is why I don't have much time for anything else. Arg!!!
Hope you all have a terrific weekend! I'll be here... in the chicken coop....
That can be so frustrating (how about one of your goats eating eggs! one of ours got a taste for them after having free access to the compost pile. Once that got out of reach she forgot about egg eating)!
ReplyDeleteI think that it is a habit born out of a craving, or nest cleaning. Every now and then ours will do that (we have a hen who's egg shells are very soft and often cracks if there is another layer getting into the nest box).
Try and haunt the chicken house and grab the eggs before they have a chance to eat them. Do you remember what time it was that the known culprit laid/ate her egg? I wonder if they usually lay the same time every day.
Sometimes farm life feels awfully discouraging when you aren't sure how to solve a problem!
An egg eating goat? Oh no! LOL! Too funny. I think we may have solved the problem... Will know more in a few days. :)
DeleteI wish I had an answer for you. But I have never had that problem myself. My friend has some like that though. I am having a huge problem with broody hens. I have 4 of them in a cage right now trying to get them to stop. I don't want or need any more roosters, which is usually what they all hatch. And also am having a problem keeping some of them in the coop and run. Chickens can sure be a mystery and alot of work and frustration. Just listen for the egg laying song, then rush in and grab that egg fast! Good luck. I hope you get the bad girls. You might want to either separate them or have some fried chicken! Fried chicken sounds pretty darn good right about now myself.
ReplyDeleteYou might want to consider clipping their wings Kris. We did that this time and so far none have gotten out. It's pretty easy. I found a video on Youtube to show us how to do it. Fried chicken sounds real good right now....
DeleteI used to raise chickens and I think I remember hearing they will eat the eggs when they have a deficiency. Do you give them oyster shells? An old fashioned remedy was to wash out the egg.. bake them dry and then crush them and add to the food.
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