Storms and chickens

[AMO]

Help - I dropped an egg in the run last week and the girls were very quick to eat it all up - including the shell

 

After a week of no eggs to collect I found evidence that they are ating them in the nesting box!! Little !!

 

Any ideas on how to stop this please?

 

AMO NO EGGS x

Edited February 6, 2008 by Guest

[Egluntyne]

If you can manage to get the contents out of an egg, it is recommended that you fill the shell with mustard.

 

A few tastes of that is said to put them off.

[BeckyBoo]

Yup, if you can remember how to blow an egg (from my dim and distant childhood!!) then fill it with mustard or pepper or chilli or something equally not to chickens tast that should fix it!

Good luck

 

MRs Bertie

[AMO]

Thanks for the advice.

 

So far, the girls have eaten two blown eggs - one filled with mustard and the other a balmy mix of mustard and pepper powder - I think they like them!! AAARRRGHHHH!!

 

To add insult to injury I am having to buy eggs to blow and fill up for them !!

[chickenlass]

Thanks for the advice.

!

 

To add insult to injury I am having to buy eggs to blow and fill up for them !!

 

I'm so sorry but I couldn't help but start laughing when I read your thread, The things these chickens put us through Fancy having to buy eggs to blow to stop them eating their own

Mine eat them now and again if I don't collect them quickly enough.

[The Dogmother]

I hope they stop soon AMO

[Laura & CTB]

What a nightmare!!

 

My two kicked one out of the eglu yesterday and it broke - I got home to find two very eggy faces

[AMO]

I have to laugh at the absurdity of it all too!

 

The problem is I'm not at home during the day when they are laying or I could whip the eggs out before they get eaten. I'll give another couple of days with the blown eggs then I may try seperating the chooks for a few days at a time to try and see which is the ringleader. My money is on Fifi!!

 

AMO

x

[xChicken04x]

How annoying. You could put fake eggs in there, maybe they would give up if they couldn't eat the fake ones Or you could put bumpa bit's on them

 

Good luck!

 

xx

[Christian]

Try putting some rubber eggs in the nest. When their beaks bounce off the eggs it might put them off?

 

Sorry, really appalling description!

[Egluntyne]

You can get "roll away nest boxes"....but am not sure how easily you could adapt one to the Eglu.

 

Might be worth a bit of tinkering.

[The Dogmother]

I don't think it would fit. Lesley had to do that when she had egg eaters.

[AMO]

I left a blown egg in there last night along with 2 pingpong balls and found an intact egg in the box this morning!

 

Let's hope when I get back tonight I find a few more - those girls have a lot of making up to do!

 

Hubby may be able to make some sort of custom rollaway to sit on top of the Egglu nestbox if it continues.

[Christian]

Thats good news!!

 

Hope there are more when you get home.

[Egluntyne]

Hubby may be able to make some sort of custom rollaway to sit on top of the Egglu nestbox if it continues.

 

Get him to patent it if it works!

 

Good luck.

[little chickadee]

Good luck - I hope you manage to get some more eggs soon. My nephew nearly smashed an egg today on the bars of the run. Glad he didn't or I might have been in for the same problem!

[AMO]

Yey!! 2 whole eggs in the nest box when I came home tonight!! I think Hazel is guarding them for me!!

 

Gotta go - Hugh is on in 2 mins

 

AMOxx

[Egluntyne]

Good oh!

[The Dogmother]

Fab news AMO!

[andyirons]

once chickens get the taste for other chickens or eggs they can turn cannibal.

 

The only way to stop it was to kill the bird or birds i'm afraid

 

sad but true

[Ziggy]

I don't think I could kill my chook just because she eats her eggs!!!

I've been putting plastic and ceramic eggs in the nest box, and so far so good, had all the eggs intact in the last four days... there are ways to sort this problem without resorting to destroying a bird, especially a well loved pet...

[Egluntyne]

I agree Ziggy.

 

Amo has sorted her problem out....hasn't she?

 

Culling would have to be absolutely the last resort, and really only the sort of step taken in a commercial establishment.

[AMO]

Sorry - just caught up with this thread again.

 

I did have about a week of collecting eggs but they started eating them again! I tried seperating them to see if I could catch the culprit but it looks like all of them are guilty!

 

Today OH has made a rollaway that sits in the Egglu nesting box - I'll let you know tomorrow if it works!!

[AMO]

Yey - the gadget that OH has made as a rollaway for the Egglu has worked!!

 

The girls have been refusing to go in the nesting box since we put the rollaway in - they took to laying on the roosting bars and then eating the eggs

 

Lesley has kindly lent me a traditional rollaway which they have been sitting in but not laying

 

But, tonight, OH has just checked the Egglu and has found an intact egg under his gadget! It' a big egg too (probably Fifi) so we now know that it will work for all shapes and sizes.

 

I feel like doing a first egg dance!

[Egluntyne]

Yey - the gadget that OH has made as a rollaway for the Egglu has worked!!

 

The girls have been refusing to go in the nesting box since we put the rollaway in - they took to laying on the roosting bars and then eating the eggs

 

Lesley has kindly lent me a traditional rollaway which they have been sitting in but not laying

 

But, tonight, OH has just checked the Egglu and has found an intact egg under his gadget! It' a big egg too (probably Fifi) so we now know that it will work for all shapes and sizes.

 

I feel like doing a first egg dance!

 

Get on to the Patents Office quick!