Egg eating hens.

[GentleOtter]

I wondered why we were getting so few eggs and discovered a gang of egg eaters
What makes them do this and how to stop it?
They have lots of greenery as they are completely free range and they are being fed on the best of feed, the ungrateful little toerags, so what is this all about?

Depending on my mood, I sometimes go out and show them the photographs in the '100 chicken recipes' book whilst ranting about what evil hens they are but they secretly know I am a vegetarian.
The egg filled with mustard did not work as they LIKED it... the brats.
They have plenty of oyster shell and I don't feed them eggshells so they must just have the taste for them.

My nan always fed hers the empty eggshells...

Apologies if I'm talking rubbish but I read on a forum to put golf balls in the nest to put them off... Am not a chicken keeper yet but am very tempted!

Mine were doing this but have now stopped. What time do you let them out in the mornng? I started to let them out as soon as it was light so before they laid. (Had to set the alarm very early in the summer!)

Then they wandered back in on their own when they wanted to lay then left the egg alone. It seems to be something they do when they are locked in with their eggs for a while.

I also used one of those hard rubber fake eggs but not sure it made much difference tbh. But the letting them out early seems to have cured it.

They live in the big old barn at the back so they are totally free- range. They go back to the barn at night but roost up trees, on top of the compost heaps, in the tractor...everywhere.
I have put golf balls in 'nice' bits but they lay everywhere else- it is chicken anarchy here.
ps they like chilli powder too. Love it, in fact.

It is really hard to stop! If you feed egg shells then you should bake them first, to stop them getting the taste, and otherwise, just collect the eggs really regularly! It's REALLY annoying isn't it!

This can be a hard habit to break. Particularly for free living birds like yours. I've heard the remedy of blowing an egg and then filling it with mustard and leaving it in their nest but if they don't have a nest...

Last resort is culling. Do you have young stock coming on to replace the layers?

Wail This IS my new stock. There are loads of them.

Gentle Otter - poor you! Sounds like heaven for the chickens though Try looking it up on poultrychat.com - people there are a mine of information!

Thank you all.
We have just had a futile attempt at catching some of them that were roosting up in the trees. - The others are laughing in bushes somewhere or really high up in the rafters.
I found a pile of eggs though and they are fresh so have collected them for us to eat.

gentle I have no advice, just sympathy... could you get tough, maybe get some of them in smaller coops until you crack who the culprits are? sort of like quarantine? how many hens do you have?

We have done just that aefondkiss. There are now loads of little runs with three hens per run till we discover the culprits.
The wilder hens will be caught with the strawberry net tomorrow morning when they come for their feed.
The jungle fowl can just get on with it as they are mental and uncatchable.

rofl @ all your feral chickens

It sounds great. (er, except for egg eating part)!!!

it could just be that thing where, you know how one hen dashes over to examine something, starts pecking and they all do it? I am trying to give your hens the benefit of the doubt are you losing quite a few eggs?

It is just the odd one or two I think but because they all roam and lay everywhere it is hard to discover the nest sites AND a family of jackdaws has moved in so they steal eggs too.
It is slightly less anarchic here today as we managed to catch some yesterday but the Pekins and ducks have escaped....my hen runs really are dire ~ strawberry netting and a six inch nail do not a hen run make