Pro - Does anyone else's nest boxes get soaked in rain?

[Pottage]

Every morning top girl Pecky will head back to the nest box shortly after I let them out to lay. However, this morning her best friend Lola was reluctant to even leave the next box when I let them out and seemed to want to settle down to lay immediately.

 

I left her to it, and didn’t think anything of it when Pecky toddled up to the nest box. I thought she was probably just ready to lay too, or was just going to have a nose at what was going on. It’s not unusual for one girl to go any lay and another to head up to the nest box to see what all the stomping around is about.

 

Anyway, after 10 minutes or so there was a hell of a commotion. I thought it was Pecky having a go at Lola because she wanted her nest box (they have two but only ever lay in the same one :-/ ). I opened the house to tell Pecky off, and I found her with her head almost up Lola’s vent, a broken egg on the floor and the pair of them excitedly tucking into it

 

I got the remains out of the house and cleaned up the mess (most of it was already gone), but has anyone got any ways to stop the little horrors doing this again, that have actually worked? I’ve done some research online this morning and from what I’ve read it seems like it’s a hard habit to stop. There is no question of culling any of them. They are rescue girls and my pets. I don’t have the facilities to remove the egg eater(s), nor can I check the nest box regularly throughout the day as I work during the week. Not that that would have made any difference this morning because Pecky was on Lola’s egg pretty much before it had even finished coming out of her.

 

I don’t know if this is the first time it’s happened, we get between 2 and 4 eggs a day, but I’m starting to wonder on the day that just 2 eggs are laid if someone isn’t just eating the other ones :-/ Lola does lay weak shelled eggs and I did wonder if it broke on the way out of her, but the way Pecky was waiting around makes me think she’s done this before. They have access to oyster shell at all times but seem to prefer little stones they find I the garden.

 

Pecky laid almost immediately after Lola. My husband said he wondered if it was a dominance thing, because she was annoyed Lola got to the nest box before her. Is this likely? I don’t know if the egg eating is a new thing, or if it has happened before. I have my suspicions because shortly after we got them I found a very yolk like dribble on the wall of one of the nesting boxes and couldn’t work out where it had come from. But then if one or two of them have been egg eaters all the while then how come there are any eggs left in the nest box at all when we get home?

Edited July 1, 2014 by Guest

[Beantree]

Chickens often peck at the shells to check the thickness Pottage. I've seen it done and thought it may be selection for hatching, because I did find the occasional egg with one beak hole in it but otherwise undamaged. That's where the problem starts. A thin shelled egg in the nest box that another gets curious about. You do get eggs laid in the runs and soft shelled eggs breaking off the perches at night. They get eaten but that doesn't seem to start the serious habit in my experience. The first thing to address is shell thickness, otherwise it will be a long term problem.

 

I've heard of putting mustard in the eggs but never heard of it working. In fact the opposite seems to happen. Contrary to what we would expect, hens like the taste and it just fuels the habit. What has worked for us almost every time is pot (not rubber) eggs in the nest box. After the eater has bashed their beak on it a few times (and presumably left with a headache) the habit stops. The only time we failed was with a hybrid that laid her egg and immediately turned round and ate it, even with a good strong shell. Roll-away nest boxes can be employed but fitting them can be awkward. Curtains in front of the nest boxes helps to keep the eggs out of view, but once they know there are eggs in there it is no deterrent.

 

Good luck as this is a difficult problem to resolve and may get worse. Many have culled their flock and started again.

[Olly]

Options are: (1) make the nest box as dark as possible (not easy with an Eglu), (2) rollaway nest box - ditto (3) try mustard-filled eggs (4) try pot or rubber eggs (or golf balls) in the nest box. Obviously getting in and removing the eggs as soon as possible is also helpful.

 

It sometimes happens opportunistically if there's a very thin-shelled egg, but sometimes it is an ingrained habit and can be very hard to break - I completely understand why you would not want to cull the perpetrator, but you may have to resign yourself to fewer eggs in future.

[Pottage]

So something strange has just happened. Lola, who laid this morning devoured egg, laid a softy right in the corner of the garden this evening at about 7:15pm. She went all quiet and fluffed up and it was only when what looked like her insides were falling out I realised she was laying an egg. It all happened pretty quickly. I picked the softie up straight away and put it in the fridge, but from holding a torch up to it it looks as though it doesn't have a yolk.

 

I knew from the recent weak shells she probably wasnt getting enough calcium, but I'm not sure how I can get any more into her if she simply wont take it. I've tried them all on milk, bread soaked in milk and natural yogurt but they all turn their beaks up at them. They have 3 coop cups in their run filled with oyster shell which I don't think they touch and they are fed on a mix of layers pellets and layers mash. They get to free range for a maximum of a couple of hours in the evening weekdays, longer on weekends but I have to say there were not really out much this weekend just gone because it was to wet. They get maybe a tablespoon full of treats (live crickets and meal worms) of an evening as I'm trying to fatten them up and promote feather growth.

 

As I've had a softie this evening (which is odd in itself right, two eggs a day?) are any others she lays going to be like that too? Feeling at a bit of a loss what to do, and wondering if there is something wrong with her

[Beantree]

I don't think milk and bread are doing them any good Pottage and you risk sour crop. Fattening them up isn't what they need. They need more protein for feathering up, which is actually what you are giving them with insects. Calcium for egg shells comes from stores within their bones. Their diet doesn't transfer to shells directly. The transfer mechanism utilises vitamin D, which either comes from the diet or sunlight. You can get a Calcium and vitamin D supplement specifically for this problem called Zolcal-D. I haven't used it myself but it has been successfully used during vet treatment.

[gavclojak]

I use some very finely ground oyster shell, it has the consistency of sand, and I sprinkle that in their pellets and they are not even aware they are eating it.

I also added mealworms to natural yogurt, it got them going:)

[jackian]

I use oyster shell and bake egg shells on a low oven and grind them ,I put them in their food ..You can also use lime stone flour which is very good which you can get on line or horsy places .

[Beantree]

I read that giving them too much Calcium is bad for them and on no account to give them crushed egg shells. Causes liver or kidney failure. I have focussed on the vitamin D and sunlight aspect of the problem.

[Luvachicken]

I read that giving them too much Calcium is bad for them and on no account to give them crushed egg shells. Causes liver or kidney failure.

 

Hmmmm, that is interesting Beantree.

Mine have always had ground egg shell and they seem to quite like it, but now I'm not so sure I should be giving to them

Where did you read it ?

[Beantree]

It was a paper or article on the internet years ago Luvachicken. We used to give ours baked and then crushed egg shells and stopped immediately. It was a fine idea before pellet feed arrived with 3% Calcium already added.

 

I have since remembered that we have used Cod Liver Oil with added multivitamins as a 'one-off' treatment many times. Given at 0.5mL per Kg bodyweight it seems to sort a lot of 'off colour' type things as if by magic. CLO is referred to in the poultry world as 'a little shot of sunshine' I was later told. We did once repeat treat a hen with it a week after and it made her ill. I assumed it was a vitamin overdose. The hen lived another 5 years anyway.

[Luvachicken]

I guess if it is in their food then they don't need it.

I shall bin what I had and fill the little tub with some other yumminess instead