[tex]

can anyone offer any help,one of my chickens has started eating her own egg.she is 1 year old and lives with 3 other chickens. i go down and feed them at 07.00am everyday and for the last two weeks there has been signs of an eaten egg.i go down again about 3.00pm to give them their treat and pick up any other eggs which are always intact. today i caught her at it,it was like she was possessed,youve never heard such a noise and seen such a fuss.when she saw me she picked up the remainder of the egg and run off.it was like she knew.ive been told there is no cure and she will have to go in the pot ,this seems a little extreme and is the last thing i want. can anyone offer any alternatives.
yours hopefully  
tracey

[joyfull]

You could try putting an egg in filled with mustard, or a rubber or pot egg in. Alternatively get or make a roll-away nest box. Hens love the taste of eggs and find them a great source of protein and the shells provide calcium so eating them is perfectly natural for them.

[orchardlady]

As joyfull suggests putting an artificial egg in the nest box is a good idea, one or two sharp pecks will jar the hen hopefully enough to put her off.

Collect eggs as often as you can maybe three times a day especially as you now know roughly what time she lays.

Try to make the nest boxes quite dark. Hang hessian sacking or other heavy material in the nest fronts and  leave only as small space at the bottom. the hens will crawl under to lay in the nice snug dark place but usually they don't crawl under to go looking for an egg to eat.

 Mix 1-2 teaspoons of ground pepper into a beaten egg and put this on the floor of the hen house, hopefully your naughty hen will try a few mouthfuls and think it's so vile it will not try it again.

Make sure your hens are getting plenty of calcium through green veg and plenty of oyster shell.

You may find that your egg eater is laying thin shelled eggs that break or crack on impact so also make sure there is plenty of bedding to soften the fall.

Hope one of these ideas helps.

OL

[darkbrowneggs]

Apparently after a hen has laid its egg it generally inspects it with its beak, presumably to test if it is strong enough to survive being sat on (which is of course an eggs purpose - not for us to collect and eat it)   If the egg shell is thin I suppose it is a case of waste not want not, so perhaps she is going out of or coming into lay and the shells are thinner than usual.

Most of the other ideas suggested are worth trying - particularly the roll away nest box, as once the hen pecks at the egg it immediately rolls away

I had an egg eater once that I cured with an "old wife's"  remedy of milk.  She rushed over to drink it an after a couple of days the problem seem solved, so I it must be a quick calcium fix for them.

All the best, and try and make sure the others don't begin to copy as the habit can be contagious

Sue
Dark Brown Eggs

[tex]

THANKS TO ALL OF YOU FOR YOUR SUGGESTIONS I WILL TRY THESE OVER THE NEXT FEW DAYS AND LET YOU ALL KNOW HOW I GET ON.

[Craig69]

Went out out at 7am to let my girls out & one of them stayed inside pecking at something.
I couldn't see any shell but am sure it was egg on the floor she was pecking at.
It was on the edge of the nesting box they don't use, which i stoppped putting straw in.
There is a piece of wood along this that stops the eggs rolling out, so am thinking that this egg dropped on this breaking it.
They are in one of these pretty looking houses, which i wish i never bought now & the perch is quite near the next boxes. Would they lay whist on the perch?
If so then i can understand the egg breaking if dropped from this height.
I'll have to keep an eye on this & try what has been posted in this topic if it continues.
I know which one it was, who didn't bat an eyelid when i opened the next box lid

[joyfull]

they can sometimes be took short and lay whilst on a perch (usually when young and just coming into lay). If the shell was slightly weak and it broke then the chicken was doing what comes natural to them - hide any evidence from preditors and also get protein and calcium at the same time.

[Craig69]

I have read a few other posts & am now thinking it might have been a soft egg?
Only reason i'm think that is because i couldn't find any shell when i cleaned it out & can't see she had eaten all the shell.
If any of my neighbours saw this morning they would have had a laugh seeing me stood there with just a pair of shorts & gardening gloves at 7am 

[joyfull]

they love the shell 

[8doubles]

I have tried the curry-chilli-pepper filled egg trick with golden pheasants. It must have been hot enough to strip paint but they ate the lot on more than one occasion.

[orchardlady]

I suggested a pepper filled egg but I haven't actually tried it, however another suggestion I've come across but not tries is n egg filled with washing up liquid with a little masking tape covering the bow holes. Maybe worth a try?

[tex]

ive now tried blowing an egg and filling it with mustard and pepper,the little darlings ate the lot so its back to the drawing board !

[Junie]

I have tried the curry-chilli-pepper filled egg trick with golden pheasants. It must have been hot enough to strip paint but they ate the lot on more than one occasion.

I have heard somewhere that chillis do not affect chickens  I have also read about putting dried chillis and their seeds into any seed feed, this puts off rodents but has no effect on the chickens.  I have not tried it as dried chillis are expensive and hard to come by in France!

[8doubles]

I have heard somewhere that chillis do not affect chickens  I have also read about putting dried chillis and their seeds into any seed feed, this puts off rodents but has no effect on the chickens.  I have not tried it as dried chillis are expensive and hard to come by in France!

I know they put whole dried chillies in large parrot seed mix. A couple of macaws at a local garden centre would take them out straight away and dump them on the floor.
Grow a couple of chilli plants and you will get plenty for drying.

[Junie]

I have heard somewhere that chillis do not affect chickens  I have also read about putting dried chillis and their seeds into any seed feed, this puts off rodents but has no effect on the chickens.  I have not tried it as dried chillis are expensive and hard to come by in France!

I know they put whole dried chillies in large parrot seed mix. A couple of macaws at a local garden centre would take them out straight away and dump them on the floor.
Grow a couple of chilli plants and you will get plenty for drying.

I tried but the slugs enjoyed the plants before I could blink!!  Still will try again next year.