[feutty]

How can I stop chooks eating their eggs is there any magic way

[WG.]

Await expert replies, feutty.  My non-expert view is that your chooks need more grit available.  Years ago we kept ducks, we used to put down oyster shell grit for them and it was amazing how much of it they ate.

[agapanthus]

What I've done in the past is to get an egg, break it in 2 and fill with a mixture of flour, curry powder, mustard and anything else yucky, put it together again and place in the nest box. They don't often try to eat eggs after that!!!!      :twisted:

[Aunt Sally]

There is no magic way to stop hens eating eggs once they have acquired a taste for them I'm afraid  

1.  Collecting eggs as soon as you can will help of cause.  

2.  Some people say that if you blow an egg and fill it with unpleasant contents like mustard or very strong curry and replace it in the nest,  it will put them off.  But I have friends who's hens enjoy a Vindaloo :roll:

3.  Placing an unbreakable artificial egg, perhaps a stone one, in the nest might also do the trick.

4.  If all those fail you could try a bumper bit.  This fits to the hens beak and protrudes beyond the end of the beak so that they can't get a good bash on an egg to break it and can be dispensed with once the habit is broken.  They are available from the Wernlas Collection http://www.wernlas.com (you can give them a ring, really nice people).  Some people don't like using them as it interferes a little with the hens natural feeding behaviour.  But you'd be surprised how quickly they learn to pick up even tiny things again.  

Good luck it's a difficult one.  Let us know how you get on.  

[feutty]

Thanks for all the tips,think I've found the problem found soft egg today so problem is getting them to take more grit.  thanks all.

[Aunt Sally]

It's not necessarily grit she needs, make sure she is getting crushed oyster shell.  

Grit may just be stones and it might contain crushed cockle shell which is not as readily absorbed by the hen as the calcium from oyster shell