Pet Shop Haven

Sometimes when young pullets are just beginning to lay, they start eating the eggs. It can be possible to retrain them but some chickens are more difficult to retrain than others.

Chickens can often eat eggs for the first time when they've have been damaged - such as being troddne on or dropped. They may think this is some new food to try. They may eat the shell, or not. But once they've tasted an egg, it can be hard habit to break.

Preventative measures.

Make sure your nest boxes in your chicken ark or hen house have a lip on the bottom of the front so it’s hard to kick eggs out accidentally. Chickens need sufficient space to move around in their nestboxes without damaging the eggs.

Next, make sure there is a good supply of bedding material in the nest boxes to protect the eggs from being moved around.

Finally, an egg is easier to break if the shell is thin. Be sure to have oyster shell available at all times for your hens to increase calcium intake and strengthen their shells.

If the chickens can roam free so they have more interest, or you have a chicken ark you can move around, they will have more interest and are less likely to get bored.

Things you can do with chickens who have started to eat eggs

Collect often. If an egg is not collected, it is more likely to be eaten.
If your hens all lay in the morning, be sure to collect as soon as they are done. Keep checking during the day if your chickens lay over the course of the day.

This method can stop it going on, and isolating them in a chicken ark is a good solution too.

What other things could you try

You could try putting golf balls in the nesting boxes. This works as the chickens will be put off after pecking the hard ball.

Wooden eggs look more like the real think, so make work too.

Another thing to try is to remove an egg and heavily coat it with petroleum jelly and then replace it. A beakful fo gloop is the result of pecking.

Boredom can be as much a cause of egg pecking as it is of pecking other chickens. So giving them more interest in their run, letting them range free or putting them in a portable chicken ark can all be possible solutions

If one chicken is setting an example, isolate her before she can teach the rest of the flock.

This is where a chicken ark can be useful, so you can house her separately for a while. She will have interest from being moved around regularly, and if you collect the eggs frequently as well, you may break her of the habit.

Similar Posts

• Free Range Your Chickens, But Keep Them in a Chicken Ark
• Build a Chicken Coop in the Right Location
• Little Known Facts About Easy Chicken Coop Plans