Single hen

[AJuff]

I'm not sure which chook is the culprit but one of them is targeting the green and blue eggs and eating them. At first I thought that they were accidently being broken but after a number of weeks it has become clear that blue/green eggs are being selected out.

 

How should I deal with this? Should I keep the columbines separate? I had intended to split the flock but was planning to keep the marans together.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Blimey, you can't let that continue . What a waste of lovely and . I think I've read that mustard (or chilli?) powder secreted in a broken egg (if you can manage it) can put them off?

[Egluntyne]

Not heard of this before. I'd do as ANH suggests. (It's mustard...they love chilli!)

[Snowy]

Can you paint a porcelain egg blue and put that in the nest? If you have found shell remnants, how does the shell seem, is it thin at all? If so, they may be targetting them because of the softer/thinner shells. Hope you get it sorted - hate to see those lovely eggs going to waste (although the chooks wouldn't think so )

[AJuff]

I initially thought that the shells were thinner and had been accidently broken. However as the weeks have passed this is not the case. The shells seem to be fairly thick definitely not thin and brittle as first thought.

 

YD says she found Felicity (Sussex star) and Hilda (columbine) in the nest box together. Hilda got off the nest and when she went back Felicity was there and two green eggs had been broken! She thinks Felicity is the culprit!

 

I may pop the columbines into the eglu tomorrow just to check that their eggs are def. ok.

[Egluntyne]

I don't know if this would be possible, but how about seeing if a couple of Rollaway nest box liners would fit in the cube.

 

[AJuff]

Err silly question but where do you put them?

[Egluntyne]

They are really meant for purpose built nest boxes, but I'm sure I remember someone on the forum putting them in the nesting area of the cube, and the eggs rolled away under the insert, but were inaccessible to the hens.

 

Might be worth enquiring about dimensions, or making something similar if you are handy.