Chickens eating eggs

[aart]

I give them a good varied diet

What does this mean?
A good chicken ration ....or adding other things that you think are 'healthy' but not might be the best for a chicken?

 

[Col1948]

The rollaway next boxes arrived today, got them in the coop now, won't know how they are till morning.
They are meant to be hung on the wall so they tilt down to allow the egg roll, I have mine on the coop floor so had to put a piece of wood at the back of them to tilt them slightly.
The instructions were in Spanish, luckily they also had pictures lol, they were a bit fiddly to assemble in parts but managed it in the end.

 

[Col1948]

Well they never went near the new rollaway nest boxes, I knew they had laid so I went egg hunting.
I remember once when the nest boxes were occupied and this particular hen always likes the end spot in the nest box but it was occupied.
So I watched her and she kept coming back to check but she also went to a spot in the garden that was covered by long grass and an overhanging bush but she went in and kept coming out, something mustn't have been right, she eventually settled for another spot in the nest box.
So back to the egg hunt, that was the first place I checked, lo and behold there was 5 eggs in there, I knew the ones she had laid but there was another one which I knew belonged to one of the Cuckoo Marans.

So do I leave this for further eggs to be laid or shall I wreck it so it no longer looks desirable as a nest spot?

Also how do I encourage them to use the rollaway boxes, they are made of metal not wood, is that putting them off?

 

[laruecharles]

I made a successful pair of roll away nesting boxes from two plastic paint trays that I found in my shed. Here is how I did it.

1. I purchased four feet by two feet of 1/8 inch thick press-board (or plywood if you wish) for two nests.
2. I cut a piece 12 inch by 6 inch for the cover to fit on top on the deep end of the paint tray. Instead of hinges, I used two cable ties and loosely attached the cover to the end of the paint tray.
3. I cut a piece 14 inch by 11 inch to extend the tray so the chickens would have more room to nest. This piece just comes out and it not attached to the paint tray. To prevent it from sliding into the deep end of the tray I cemented two small blocks of wood at the point where the slope ends.
5. Finally, I covered the cover and the extender board with burlap, which the chickens love.

The chickens nest with their heads on the cover and their bodies on the extender board. They seem comfortable in that position. The eggs roll down under the cover. All I do is to lift the cover and get the eggs. I highly recommend this setup to prevent chickens from eating eggs.

 

[Col1948]

Update on the Rollaway nest boxes:
At first they just looked at them, I had 2 broodies so only had 2 others laying.
One of the laying hens found a hiding place in the garden to lay rather than use the new nest boxes.
The other one seemed to stop or she too laid somewhere, anyway I added some straw to the nests but it did eliminate the rollaway but I wanted them to see them as a nest, also added some fake eggs.
I wrecked the hiding place nest as well by the way and the straw and fake eggs seemed to work, I still had to collect the eggs as they didn't rollaway.
Left it a couple of days then removed the straw, so today I saw one of them go in and after a while I went in and the egg was in the holding place, so it worked.
This gave me a bit of peace of mind now hoping the egg eating will stop plus easier to collect the eggs.

 

[aart]

Fantastic Job @Col1948 !!

 

[courtsmarans]

Mustard eggs are the best way to nip this in the butt HANDS DOWN

 

[aart]

Mustard eggs are the best way to nip this in the butt HANDS DOWN

Glad it worked for you,
but I've heard way more stories of fails than successes with that method.

Did you blow out an egg and then totally fill the shell with mustard...or just put a little bit in there?
I wonder if the kind of mustard makes a difference?

 

[Col1948]

Someone posted not long ago about mustard eggs, he said the chickens loved them lol.

I did try to do some myself once, I made a right mess, I was doing well at first then the egg broke and I had mustard all over the place.

 

[Toothpick]

Had this issue for a few days. Went to Tractor Supply and got the fake eggs. Put them in the nest and after a few more days no more egg eating.