4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[josha]

Hi, am new to the forum and to keeping chickens. Got our 2 girls delivered from Omlet last Wednesday and have encountered a couple of problems which I hope you can help with?

 

1/ The Miss Pepperpot pecks anything in range which my 4 year is finding out to his cost, any ideas how to stop it pecking people constantly?

 

2/ The Gingernut ranger has laid 2 eggs which have both been eaten by one or both of the chickens before we can retrieve them. I heard that once they are eating eggs it is very difficult to stop this? again any ideas would be welcome?

 

Other than the issues above we are loving our new garden companions.

 

Thanks

 

Josh

[Hen Watch]

Hi Josh and welcome to the forum.

 

When my chooks were first delivered they pecked at everything to see if it was food, from toenails, stitching in jeans, shoelaces, freckles on my arm and my fingers when I tried to open the run door. They were a bit like babies putting everything in their mouths. It stopped after about a month when they got to know what was food and what wasn't. My Miss Pepperpot ocassionally still likes to try and taste my engagement ring but only when the sun catches it (.... we think she's secretly a magpie)

 

If you can regularily check for eggs (and I know that is not ideal when out to work) then they have less chance to eat them. However, you may find that since your chooks are new to laying, the eggs they are producing may be softies (with a really jelly like shell) or very thin shells and so they are cracking easily and then get eaten. My first eggs had what I thought were normal shells until a few months down the line when I realised that I then needed the sledgehammer approach to crack them open as they had got much harder. So it may not be a nasty habit just yet. But keep an eye on it.