[dyedinthewool]

Hi I need advice please,
Came home from work at lunch time yesterday, went to let hens out of their pen to free-range as per usual and noticed some egg shell on the grass area of their pen.  Thought an egg must have stuck and dropped off once the henny had come outside possible broken and the rest of the hens had eaten it.
This morning... while cleaning out the shed four of the hens came in looking as I though to go into the nest boxes to lay, after a few minutes 'snuffling' about they went out - this is not unusual as they quite often come in while I'm in there.  A bit later while I'm doing other things around the houses/barns I heard a henny clucking as if she had laid an egg.  I then went out to hang out some washing   and there was a lot of 'pecking' noise from the shed so I whipped in there pretty quick and they had an egg broken on the floor and all of them tucking in... there was three 'whole' eggs in the nest so had those out pretty sharp and chased the ******* hens out, they kept trying to come back in and even though I put shavings on the remaining egg bits and scuffed it with my welly they still tried to eat the shavings.... I put some jeyes fluid on the stain on the floor to discourage them.
 
What can I do to stop them
 
Why have they suddenly started to do this.
 
I have a mix of 'older' hens with the newer hens they all get on quite well and have been in together for the last couple of months .  The old hens have stopped laying, the new ones (Blackrock and Marans I  bought them as POL back in May) have been laying well and are still laying 6-7 eggs a day from 8 hens.
 
Any advice would be appreciated.

[jaykay]

I think it can happen when an egg breaks and they get the taste for it.
It can be difficult to sort out 

A curtain over the neat box helps, so it's dark in there and the others can't see there are eggs.
If you can be around for a few days and collect eggs the second you hear the 'egg cackle' it helps break the habit
Make sure they're not short of calcium or vitamins etc - oyster grit and poulty spice, to make sure.
More nest boxes so less likelihood of sharing and standing on each others eggs.

Good luck - it's not always an easy one to fix.

[mintytwoshoes]

Hi,
I think I read somewhere that if you manage to keep the shell of an egg mostly intact and empty the contents - one way of stopping egg eating is to put mustard inside the shell and replace it in the next box.
I have not tried it myself but might be worth a try.

[dyedinthewool]

I think it can happen when an egg breaks and they get the taste for it.
It can be difficult to sort out 

A curtain over the neat box helps, so it's dark in there and the others can't see there are eggs.
If you can be around for a few days and collect eggs the second you hear the 'egg cackle' it helps break the habit
Make sure they're not short of calcium or vitamins etc - oyster grit and poultry spice, to make sure.
More nest boxes so less likelihood of sharing and standing on each others eggs.

Good luck - it's not always an easy one to fix.

Thanks Jaykay,
 
I've put toweling across their nestboxes cut into strips so quite dark. They've two large nestboxes and are quite happy to 'double up'.
There's always oyster grit available and I mix poultry spice in the food. They have a mix of rolled barley, wheat, cut maize, poultry spice damped down with codliver oil, sometimes add garlic powder or linseed.  Plus all the bugs/worms etc from scratching in the dungheap and around the paddocks.
I'll have to get a stool in the shed so's I can see whose the culprit...

MTS
I'll give that a try as well

Just can't understand WHY they've suddenly started this.

[darkbrowneggs]

Mustard does not generally work as birds do not have the same taste receptors as we do. 
 
You can check for the main culprit by putting a sacrifical egg on the floor and see which bird runs towards it and breaks it, though it does sound as though the habit is pretty fixed.
 
If they are older birds, particularly hybrids the egg shell quality will almost always be poor as they will have laid upto their limit.  Calcium for eggshells does not come directly from the feed, but from the bones, which then needs replacing, so too many eggs in the first couple of years may mean they can never make up what they have lost, which is why commercial units clear them out on the second moult at the latest.  You will probably not fix their problems, though apparently a calcium drink to improve shell quality has sometimes helped.
 
Darkening the nest boxes as you have done is a good idea in any case but you could try rollaway nest boxes or inserts.
 
Make sure they are getting sufficient protein as sometimes, especially when they are growing feathers and laying the protein demands are very high.  If you are not feeding any pellets unless the range is very full of bugs and worms the protein you are giving them seems a bit on the low side.  Fresh bakers egg shells fed to excess was a Victorian trick to stop egg eating, as was fresh milk to drink - both are full of protein vitamins and calcium so a real hit for a moulting hen, or one just coming into lay
 
Its good they are getting vitamin D from the codliver oil - as you know its the sunshine vitamin, so I think we are all short of that at present. Vitamin D allows the hen to absorb the calcium we give them in the way of limestone or oystershell.   
 
A blown egg with washing up liquid dribbled inside can sometimes help, but a clever hen will work out the smell of a fresh egg compared to a washing up one - hens have an excellent sense of smell
 
If you have one main culprit try isolating her and see if the others stop the habit, then it is up to you what you do. 

[PetiteGalette]

Try putting golf balls in their nest boxes......... they soon get fed up of pecking them and getting nowhere.
Make sure you get in quickly when you hear a 'laying cackle' and leave the hens the pleasure of pecking the golf balls.
 
Egg eating usually starts when an egg with a thin shell is laid and is stood on by a bird following into the nest box.

[zarzar]

Hi you can buy either rubber or ceramic eggs to put in nest boxs that the  cant break ours soon got fed up. :

[chrismahon]

Good replies here dyedinthewool. Protein deficiency during the moult, boredom or just that one got broken and they have made the link to a whole egg. Weak shells, from a Calcium deficiency or old age, can start the problem as well. We have seen some test the shells by tapping them with their beaks. A weak one will break and it is discarded from the 'nest'. That can trigger it off.


Diet check, curtains on the nest boxes and pot eggs are the first to try. Rollaway nest boxes are a bigger job to install. Finding the culprit could help and fitting a Bumpa bit. But it sounds like you have more than one, potentially all of them.


Difficult one to fix as has been said. Disorientation may have some effect. Move the run and coop if practical. Try a scratch feed to keep them occupied.

[dyedinthewool]

Thanks for all the helpful comments
Unfortunately had to be away all day (father in law in hospital with broken leg in Somerset) ( he's reasonable okay still the grumpy old ***)
 
So not a lot of time this morning to watch them as I was cleaning out, but the same 4 hens were back in looking about - I'm sure they were saying to each other 'go on you lay an egg and then we can eat it'
 
But with the help of OH I cracked an egg filled it with mustard and stuck it back together with sellotape.  Didn't have time to blow it out and do it that way.
 
I put it on the floor and one henny pecked it two more had a go and weren't impressed with the mustard, my lavender orpington (old hen) came in and took a BIG peck and got a real beakful of mustard   if she could have spit it out she would have then she rushed out the pophole at ninety miles an hour and stuck her beak in the water bowl, gulping down beakfuls of water... it was so funny. hopefully that will have cured her...
 
I hung about as long as I could and picked up 4 more eggs so hopefully there were no more laid today for them to have a go at. Pitch black and  when we got home so only shut the popholes up.
I'll put another mustard egg in tomorrow morning and see what happens.
 
I was worried that it was the egg shells on the dung/compost heap that had encouraged them to eat the eggs.
As far as not getting enough protein theres loads of worms in the dungheap and they get a large handful of meal worms usually dried one that are soaked, fresh peas (well frozen ones that I cook and mix with the worms) Their not moulting and the orpys hardly lost a feather either (their 2 years old). Their shells are sometimes so hard I have trouble cracking them, not had any soft shelled ones at all.
I don't think they get too bored they've plenty to scratch in - have a cabbage hung up in their pen or in their house if they are confined due to weather - which they kill on a regular basis, have the whole of our smallholding to roam in including making a mess in the barn where they have made dust baths.
 
I've got a couple of dummy eggs so will replace the laid eggs with those - roll away boxes aren't a goer at the moment.
 
I can't move the 'coop' as it's an 6' x 8' shed. I was waiting for them to stop laying and then going to move them to another shed and pen ( no nest boxes) so that I can creosote their current house, would it be worth putting in some temporay nest boxes and move them now?
 
So I'll just try to keep an eye on them and hopefully stop them before it gets to the stage of having to dispatch them as they are real friendly little charactors, just need their bottoms slapped....
 

[chrismahon]

If you still have a problem after pot and mustard eggs, moving them early is the only option left I think Dyedinthewool as everything else sounds right. I have never heard of mustard in the eggs working- others report they actually like the taste and it encourages them. Sounds horrid to us, but chickens only have a few taste receptors. Good luck with this difficult problem.

[dyedinthewool]

 
 
There was an untouched egg in the nest this morning when I opened up the shed.
 
I put another mustard filled egg on the floor and although they went and had a look and one had a very halfhearted peck they all left it alone. Lavender never even bothered to come into the shed this morning.
 
I left it there while mucking out the other shed and the sheep barn and none touched it, but there was 3 more eggs in the nest, took those out and put in the dummy eggs.
Later there was another 2 eggs, not sure if it was the mustard or the fact that I threatened them with the chop but  they are now behaving themselves, time will tell.
 
Thank you all for your helpful advice what we do without TAS.
 

[jaykay]

Excellent, well done 

[northfifeduckling]

I was struggling with it for weeks. they recognised the fakes (marble ,etc.) , chilli/mustard worked best. Now they are moulting, fingers crossed that all is back to normal after...

[chrismahon]

Good news Dyedinthewool. Some people have culled their flock as a result of the habit becoming unbreakable.