Caught that dastardly Egg Eater!! Now what???

[kcfuerst]

Caught that RIR red handed, or is that beak-ed?? Jumped right off the nest with a half egg in her mouth running around like she was queen. Put an identifier on her leg and now don't know what to do. For now I have changed her name to soup. Do I fatten her up, separate her, what? All I know is that I'm finally glad I found out who it was so I can remove her.

I want to put her in the freezer, but not sure what the preliminaries might be.

All replies welcome!!

 

[OkChickens]

I would definitely separate her from your other flock, and then when she lays try to remove the egg before it is eaten. Then after a few days to a week let her back and see what she does!

-Nate

 

[rockinpaints]

The other hens will pick it up from her. I would separate her asap.

 

[lleighmay]

Definitely separate her. Just keep in mind that she may not be the only one (alas). It doesn't seem to take anything to get them started, and it's a giant pain to get them to stop. At one point the egg song apparently meant "SNACK!" so that almost everyone came running and there were several subversively slinky chickens who would cruise through the coop peeping into nest boxes to see if someone failed to announce a treat in a timely manner. "Fortunately" (at least for my sanity) mine soon quit laying because they were molting, and now it's apparently the depths of winter around here, without any gentle winter preliminaries, but I have definite plans to do some redesigning in the coop complete with a roll-out nestbox a la Opa https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=287684&p=1 . THANK YOU OPA for such lovely plans!

 

[farmerjan70]

She needs to be soup as soon as possible. Not only will the others pick it up from her, but she is costing you.... Wring her neck and then do whatever but get her out of there.

 

[keeko]

Agreed. Get her out ASAP. Watch her for a few weeks (even try leaving her egg in there to see what she does). You can try putting a golfball in the nest boxes - they peck at it and realize there's nothing good there. If all else fails, make a stew. You do NOT want that spreading to the rest of your flock. It can catch like wildfire, and then you have serious trouble on your hands. Once the habit is started, it's very difficult (some would say impossible) to stop.
Good luck!!

 

[keeko]

P.S. If there are others, keep an eye out. I've found that putting up "curtains" in front of the nest boxes (with a slit down the middle for them to get in and out) keeps most of the nosy, egg-eating ones out. Out of sight, out of mind.

 

[swimmer]

I finally figured out which on of mine is eating her eggs. She's only been laying about a week and I think her shells are soft. Not sure why, I feed 18% feed and have oyster shell available. Maybe it's a new egg laying thing?? The rest of the flock is doing fine. I went to let them out this morning and she had yolk all over her head. Guilty!! I hate to cull her since my 9 year old picked her out for his "own" chicken. I have no cage or crate to put her in. Should I just let her out to free range while the rest stay in the run during the day?? I'm gone for about 5 hours during the day so might not be able to catch her in the act.

 

[abhaya]

chicken soup cure lots of things

 

[Yay Chicks!]

I know that some folks will say that there is nothing to be done once you discover an egg eater, and that may be their experience. But I've read about others who have stopped their culprits with golf balls, ceramic eggs, blowing out an egg and filling it with mustard. Some will only eat eggs that have shells thin enough to crack with first peck, so doing what one can to get more calcium in the diets can help. There is a thread on here somewhere where the poster cured hens of eat eating by feeding BOSS. The theory was that the extra Omega 6 satisfied something they were trying to get from the eggs.

Good luck.