Poop on eggs

[Rockergirl]

**I'm a new chicken raiser** My hen will only lay on her poop board (she's been laying for just over a month), neither of the two different nest boxes I made (one was a traditional nest box and the other I made out of a cat litter box - in a previous post I mentioned she laid in her nest box until rain accidently got it wet, now no more...)....Anyway, some of the time the eggs she lays are laid on top of poop and the poop gets stuck to it. Will that make us sick? I wipe them off (not wash them) as soon as I bring them in. We wash them with warm water when it's time to eat them. However, when I wipe them off when we bring them in, the section that the poop was stuck too looks like the poop "ate" off or "melted" off the bloom in that section. Does that mean the bacteria from the poop will seep through the egg shell? Also, I know the bloom is important to leave on until you eat. Will that one part that the poop removed the bloom hurt the egg and how long it will last?

Also - any thoughts of wiping mineral oil on eggs when we bring them inside? Does it impact the taste or quality of the egg? If I wash the eggs (not just wipe them off) will the mineral oil act as the bloom?

 

[SueT]

Is she laying eggs in the daytime on the poop boards? What bedding is on the poop boards? Are there fake eggs in the nests? Are there other hens laying in the nests?
I had a hen laying on the poop boards, which are covered w about an inch of sweet PDZ. I made sure it was scooped clean every morning. If I get an occasional poopy egg, I usually wash it well with soap and warm water and refrigerate or use immediately or if it’s really bad, cook it for the chickens.

 

[azygous]

You can wash the poop off the eggs with warm water as you've been doing. Then refrigerate the eggs immediately. This will keep the eggs fresh despite washing away some of the "bloom". Refrigerating the eggs immediately also prevents any bacteria growth. Cooking the eggs will kill any bacteria that may be in the egg. I've been handling poopy eggs in this manner for fifteen years and never have gotten sick.

You don't mention if these eggs dropped onto the poop board have normal shells. If they're thin or soft, that's a reason why they are being passed while on the roost. A short period of a calcium supplement can correct this.

Another reason why an egg is passed on the roost is because the hen held it in, being reluctant to use the nest. So it passes later while she's asleep. You urgently need to correct your nest situation. Laying eggs is a hen's main job. She takes it seriously and she needs the proper facility to do her job. You need to provide a comfortable and safe nest for her to do it.

Hens like seclusion and privacy when they lay. It must be in a quiet place away from normal activity. They like clean nesting material they can "arrange". Wood shavings or straw or hemp will fill this need. If it has bugs in it, though, a hen will avoid the nest like the plague it is.

 

[Rockergirl]

Is she laying eggs in the daytime on the poop boards? What bedding is on the poop boards? Are there fake eggs in the nests? Are there other hens laying in the nests?
I had a hen laying on the poop boards, which are covered w about an inch of sweet PDZ. I made sure it was scooped clean every morning. If I get an occasional poopy egg, I usually wash it well with soap and warm water and refrigerate or use immediately or if it’s really bad, cook it for the chickens.

She typically lays in the morning just before 8:00, on the poop board. There is sand on the poop boards so that I can easily scoop it up with a kitty litter scooper. I do scope it every day but she lays each morning pretty much soon after they wake up, so I can't scoop before she gets in there. I have 4 hens, she is the only one that has started laying (she is known to lay earlier). They are about 28 weeks old (round about), I have a feeling the other 3 won't lay until spring. I do have fake eggs in there, but ever sense it rained in the box, she won't lay in it, she did not like the feel of the wet. We figured out the problem and fixed it, but she isn't having it...I have no idea how to make it better. That is when I added a litter box in the coop, hoping she would use that. I think she is just being stubborn and feels safe on her poop board.....I'm fearful the other birds will follow, when they are ready to lay. I don't know how to break the habit.

Hmmm, I'm not washing them off, just wiping them because of I read that you don't want to wash the bloom. I guess I need to rethink my method with the ones that have poop stuck on them

 

[Rockergirl]

You can wash the poop off the eggs with warm water as you've been doing. Then refrigerate the eggs immediately. This will keep the eggs fresh despite washing away some of the "bloom". Refrigerating the eggs immediately also prevents any bacteria growth. Cooking the eggs will kill any bacteria that may be in the egg. I've been handling poopy eggs in this manner for fifteen years and never have gotten sick.

You don't mention if these eggs dropped onto the poop board have normal shells. If they're thin or soft, that's a reason why they are being passed while on the roost. A short period of a calcium supplement can correct this.

Another reason why an egg is passed on the roost is because the hen held it in, being reluctant to use the nest. So it passes later while she's asleep. You urgently need to correct your nest situation. Laying eggs is a hen's main job. She takes it seriously and she needs the proper facility to do her job. You need to provide a comfortable and safe nest for her to do it.

Hens like seclusion and privacy when they lay. It must be in a quiet place away from normal activity. They like clean nesting material they can "arrange". Wood shavings or straw or hemp will fill this need. If it has bugs in it, though, a hen will avoid the nest like the plague it is.

The eggs have really nice strong shells. They were covered in many dark speckles but that has calmed down the past week. I did find one that was kinda dented in on the bottom point last week...which makes me think you may be right....I wondered out it happened like that, maybe she did drop it while on her roost :-( that makes me sad to think she could be holding them in, stressed. I just don't know how to get her back over to the nest box.....she used it, until it get wet, we fixed it but she no longer will touch it. That is why I added a litter box with a top. The problem is, we just don't have any room to add a nest box anywhere else. We are using a small shed and literally there is no other location to put the nest box. We actually cut a hole to fit the nest box so that it pops outside of the shed wall (for space reasons). This is our second coop. The first one was a really expensive pre-fab one we bought. They said it would fit 6 hens so we figured it was plenty of space for 4...as they got bigger we figured out no way, they need more space. That is when we bought the small shed. Now I'm thinking we need to do something else, a different coop, even bigger so we can redo the nest boxes.....I know the move was stressful for them when we changed coops the first time, they did recover and now they are happy. I just hate to do it again, but I think that may be the only answer....Sounds extreme, but I literally have no where else to put a nest box or change what we have, except inside the covered run that is attached to the coop. But I don't think they will feel there, while laying....

 

[SueT]

I think it will eventually work out. Put fresh straw in the nest boxes, and fake eggs. The others may start up the trend to use the other nests. My hens do change their nesting areas/habits several times a year.
I’d say relax, wash the eggs well, and see what happens.

 

[Mrs. K]

Show a picture of your nests. But I too think this will work itself off.

Now there is different kinds of poopy eggs. Eggs, with a lump of poop on one part, with the rest of the egg clean, where as the poop can just wipe off - Do exactly what you are doing, wipe that off and rinse before opening and using.

One can get horrible, poop covered eggs, where it looks like the egg was rolled in it. I have had it happen, when pullets or chicks are sleeping in the nest, fill it will poop, and then a layers go in there to lay and move them all around. If I get that, I immediately clean the nests - and set it up so the pullets do not sleep in there. Those eggs, I wash when I come into the house, and use up in cakes or other baking - 350 degrees would kill anything.

I too, have never gotten sick, but I do not eat raw eggs.

Mrs K

 

[azygous]

If you are the "hands on" type of chicken keeper, you can actually enable a hen to use the nest box by observing them in the early part of the morning. Watch for a hen nervously pacing and loudly complaining. That's a hen with an egg she senses coming down her oviduct into the shell gland.

This sensation is highly motivating to get a hen to search for a place to lay her egg. When you see a hen behaving in this agitated manner, gently pick her up, reassuring her calmly, and carry her to one of the nests and slide her in. Then leave quietly. Don't stick around as that can distract her.

When I do this with a hen, she quickly realizes she's in precisely the place she needs and wants to be. She will immediately settle in and arrange the nest material in a fastidiously funny way that both calms her and satisfies her. She is much more likely then to return to this nest the next time she has an urge to lay.

Sometimes we as flock managers need to intervene in the behavior of our chickens to correct behavior that is stressful. Chickens are more willing to follow our lead than most imagine.

 

[Ridgerunner]

This seems to be a different situation than most of the posts on this topic. She was laying in a nest until it got wet, so she moved her nest. She needs to relearn where to lay.

My suggestion is either fix the existing nest so you can lock her in there or build another nest so you can lock her in that. Since she lays early in the morning lock her in the nest before she lays and leave her in there until she lays, then let her out. I do something like this to retrain mine to lay in the nests when they start laying somewhere else.

If you find she is laying from the roosts before she hops down in the morning then you have a different problem. We can chat about that.

 

[rosemarythyme]

This is a copy/paste but it includes some of the good advice given above, plus how I handle birds with issues figuring out where to lay:

Now this isn't practical if you don't have time to stalk them, but what I did was I learned the problem bird(s) laying schedules, and when they went to their preferred spot to lay, I'd go and pick them up, stick them in a nest box, and barricade them in using my arms to cover the exit. 30-60 seconds was all they needed to calm down and start exploring the box and decide that maybe it wasn't such a bad place to be. They each started reliably using the boxes after that.

Alternatively, some folks design "doors" on their nest boxes so birds can be locked in, which basically does the same as above, but forces the bird to stay in the nest box (whereas once I see them exploring and sitting down in the nest, I leave them to it and walk away).