Egg Eater

[pony007]

Last week I noticed my Cream Legbar pullet got a pretty nasty peck wound on her ear. So I treated the wound and have been keeping her segregated in a small dog run (12X8) next to my other birds. Two days ago she laid her first ever egg in the pen, which ended up being a soft shell egg and broke on the ground. She decided that it was tasty and devoured it. I didn't think anything of it initially, because i figured once she laid a normal egg with a decent shell, she would leave them alone. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. When I went out to collect eggs tonight, I found a half eaten egg in her pen. I'm afraid that she will now be an egg eater and can't be released back with the rest of the flock. (this is only happened twice so far, once with the soft shell, and once today). On a side note, I don't think feed is the issue as I'm feeding a 20% all flock with free choice oyster shell.

Does anyone have any advice on breaking her of this potential habit? I haven't dealt with an egg eater before so I'm really not sure what to do.

 

[Isadora]

I haven't heard of much success of breaking a chicken of this habit, the key part being intentional egg eating. A lot of times chickens will eat their eggs if they get broken accidentally, but don't intentionally go out of their way to break the eggs.
Really either getting rid of that chicken or putting in roll away nest boxes are going to be your best bet.

 

[HeatherKellyB]

I have to collect eggs all throughout the day. Unless they break as they're laid, it's usually a little while before an egg is discovered and the eater begins her antics, unless you have a nesting box stalker. My EE's like to eat the only cream colored egg (Calico Princess) in their nesting box. I don't know if it's because it's different or what. Maybe she's doing this out of boredom...

 

[ShropC]

I too have a egg eater problem of late in my flock of birds which are mature and reliable layers year round. I have tried a lot of the methods of breaking this cycle with mixed results, the hardest thing for me was catching the culprit. Tho you have yours, it can be a hard thing to find in a larger home flock. I had started to collect eggs randomly throughout the day instead of my usual set routine to gauge who was laying when, I noticed one bird will be in the coop late toward the middle of the day when the others are out, on checking the nest boxes there were freshly broken eggs. So I had a suspect, next thing I did was to confirm and make sure I didn't have more than one (unfortunately I did). So back to the mustard egg trick that worked for a bit, but this time I blew out some eggs and then mixed some Hot English and American Yellow mustard and a healthy dose of blue food colouring (blue being the least natural occuring colour in nature), sealed one end of the egg with wax and syringed in the bright blue mustard mixture into the eggs and sealed the other hole and placed the eggs in the box, it didn't take me long to find the culprits, same time next day I found two of my girls with blue bellies, necks feet and beaks. One was my suspect the Sussex, the other was unfortunately my beloved Amber, a bird with the most lovely temperament. So what do I do? I've been told you must cull them before it spreads or move them to a new flock (upset the pecking order), I've opted for the controversial chicken peepers and so far it is working, this with keeping the grit up as strong eggs are hard eggs to crack, keeping the nest boxes well stocked with soft bedding and keeping on top of the egg collecting, also giving them a treat before the time of day where I tended to fund the eggs, a distraction.
I know peepers are not for everyone, but I'd rather have done this instead of culling a healthy layer with a bit of any compulsion issue or rehome a bird that may or may not continue to do this there.

 

[Pony_Cart]

I too have a egg eater problem of late in my flock of birds which are mature and reliable layers year round. I have tried a lot of the methods of breaking this cycle with mixed results, the hardest thing for me was catching the culprit. Tho you have yours, it can be a hard thing to find in a larger home flock. I had started to collect eggs randomly throughout the day instead of my usual set routine to gauge who was laying when, I noticed one bird will be in the coop late toward the middle of the day when the others are out, on checking the nest boxes there were freshly broken eggs. So I had a suspect, next thing I did was to confirm and make sure I didn't have more than one (unfortunately I did). So back to the mustard egg trick that worked for a bit, but this time I blew out some eggs and then mixed some Hot English and American Yellow mustard and a healthy dose of blue food colouring (blue being the least natural occuring colour in nature), sealed one end of the egg with wax and syringed in the bright blue mustard mixture into the eggs and sealed the other hole and placed the eggs in the box, it didn't take me long to find the culprits, same time next day I found two of my girls with blue bellies, necks feet and beaks. One was my suspect the Sussex, the other was unfortunately my beloved Amber, a bird with the most lovely temperament. So what do I do? I've been told you must cull them before it spreads or move them to a new flock (upset the pecking order), I've opted for the controversial chicken peepers and so far it is working, this with keeping the grit up as strong eggs are hard eggs to crack, keeping the nest boxes well stocked with soft bedding and keeping on top of the egg collecting, also giving them a treat before the time of day where I tended to fund the eggs, a distraction.
I know peepers are not for everyone, but I'd rather have done this instead of culling a healthy layer with a bit of any compulsion issue or rehome a bird that may or may not continue to do this there.

Thank you so much for your insight. I too have an "egg stalker"! Its usually mid afternoon. I've had to go out 4-6 times a day. They have free range, trees, grass, bugs. Alfalfa hay, Oyster shell, treats, clean pine shavings, regular mite watch. AhhhG! Drives me crazy! Only 17 ladies but I suspect its more than one. Some time 5 eggs pecked. I just ordered rear roll out nests & pads. I have a ten hole, 2 story lay box I can remodel to fit the roll outs. Will join up here & stay in touch with the group. We have a face book chicken group here in Salida, CO.