My hens are eating eggs

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alexroyall85

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My hens are eating eggs
« on: February 18, 2017, 08:05 »
Hi all

I have 6 Rhode Island reds that are getting to POL. They have started to eat their eggs.
Hi do I stop this behaviour?

Many thanks

Alex

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New shoot

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Re: My hens are eating eggs
« Reply #1 on: February 18, 2017, 08:54 »
Hi Alex

Is it because they are laying soft shell eggs in the run-up to settling into laying?  All hens will attack a soft shell egg and its nigh on impossible to stop them.  Mine will eat them, but leave normal eggs alone.

If they are breaking into properly shelled eggs, that's a habit you need to stop.  John has some advice here, but for confirmed egg eaters, the roll away nest box is the surest cure.

http://www.chickens.allotment-garden.org/keeping-chickens/questions/hens-egg-eating-hens-eating-eggs/

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alexroyall85

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Re: My hens are eating eggs
« Reply #2 on: February 18, 2017, 09:48 »
I think it is because of the new eggs they are producing being soft and then they are eating them.
I think I am going to go with the fake eggs such as golf balls first and see if that does the trick. Is it very hard to construct a roll away nest box?

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New shoot

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Re: My hens are eating eggs
« Reply #3 on: February 18, 2017, 17:47 »
Is it very hard to construct a roll away nest box?

I've never tried and I can't find a thread on here where someone has.  If you google it, you get options for quite a few You Tube videos.

Soft shell eggs are not likely to roll, so it may not help at the moment.  Fake eggs may or may not work.  Hens know the difference between shelled eggs and softies. 

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Beekissed

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Re: My hens are eating eggs
« Reply #4 on: February 19, 2017, 06:25 »
Give it a couple of weeks and shells will harden up properly and then you'll not see it happening again until the next time they cycle in and out of laying.  Happens all over the world at this time of year and every year folks are wanting a cure...the cure is time, usually a couple of weeks.   ;)

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alexroyall85

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Re: My hens are eating eggs
« Reply #5 on: February 19, 2017, 07:16 »
Thanks for that last comment has put my mind at ease

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upert

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Re: My hens are eating eggs
« Reply #6 on: February 19, 2017, 16:53 »
I've had egg eaters and have rectified it with the following. Fake eggs, you can buy rubber eggs from Wilkos, or on ebay. Try and have your laying area as dark as possible, this deters chickens from seeing an egg to eat it. Provide extra calcium so as it might be lacking in their diet. Or just wait and it might eventually go away. I couldn't wait though. I wanted the eggs.



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