Broken Egg

[minskey]

Hello Peeps,

I've a bit of a puzzle; yesterday when I collected the eggs from the nestboxes there was an egg which was broken & squashed, this morning in the same nestbox it happened again. As far as I could see the whole egg was intact, the shell was strong too just squased like the last one as if it had been stood on.

Now.............. do you think this is a case of 'this is my nestbox, get out' or somone is breaking them to eat?

What do you think I should do ?

Just a thought, the nestboxes are very light, should I darken them with a curtain?

[RedThorn]

Just a quick thought... I usually only get this if I'm not quick enough to let the girls out in the morning.... might or might not be related....

[Glutton4...]

If they're breaking it to eat, the shell will be completely empty by the time you get there. Once they get a taste for it they'll fight over it and it'll be all gone. They'll probably be covered in yolk too - mine don't bother to remove the evidence!

[OverWyreGrower]

This sometimes happens with my girls if another hen is trying to get into the nestbox to lay when an egg has just been laid. They can be a bit clumsy sometimes.

Luckily, we're remedying this by building more nestboxes, then hopefully we won't have squished/shattered eggs anymore!

[RedThorn]

This is an excerpt from Little Hen Rescue page....

After you've rehomed

Egg breaking or egg eating

Hens are clumsy when first out of farms, some have never seen their eggs before let alone laid them in straw nest boxes!

They may stand on them and break them accidently, if this happens they will eat them. Try not to worry they will learn not to stand on them.

If they purposely eat eggs, again its for the same reasons as above.

Things to try..

- Remove the eggs quickly in morning to break the cycle and never leave eggs lying around

- Add mustard to the eggs to put them off eating them again

- Distract hens

It is also a sign of hen lacking in protein, feed them something high in protein like sardines, or cat food.

[minskey]

Hi RedThorn,

Won't the eggs taste of fish if you feed them fish? I remember as a child in the US eating chicken which tasted 'fishy' and was told it was because they were fed fishmeal Yuk, I hate fish!!!

[KimT]

One of my girls has trodden on an egg and broken it in the nest box this morning...........what a mess!

[RedThorn]

Hi RedThorn,

Won't the eggs taste of fish if you feed them fish? I remember as a child in the US eating chicken which tasted 'fishy' and was told it was because they were fed fishmeal Yuk, I hate fish!!!

Personally I agree with you. I'm vegetarian and fish is meat in my books (although I do eat dairy products and eggs ) I find the smell and taste of fish offensive.....
The writing in blue is a direct cut and paste from the website.... Some people on here do occasionally give fish or fish related products, I guess it comes down to personal preferences. Perhaps someone else will come along with some good alternative protien suplements....

[vicky]

The shells of my ex batts are sometimes very fragile so they can break eggs easily by trying to lay in the same nest box. I give extra calcium (oystershell) but I suspect the hens are just a bit knackered... Collecting early in the morning and again later in the day is the only solution I've found, getting to the eggs before someone else clambers over them!

[Hilary B]

Chickens (like pigs) are not natural vegetarians, their wild ancestors would eat carrion, as well as insects. For this reason purely vegetable protein may not always be particularly well utilised. Fish may or may not affect the taste of the eggs depending mainly on just how much they get.

[Flummery]

Personally I agree with you. I'm vegetarian and fish is meat in my books (although I do eat dairy products and eggs ) I find the smell and taste of fish offensive.....
The writing in blue is a direct cut and paste from the website.... Some people on here do occasionally give fish or fish related products, I guess it comes down to personal preferences. Perhaps someone else will come along with some good alternative protien suplements....

You can give them scrambled eggs - they don't recognise it as being the same as raw egg so it doesn't encourage egg breaking. It is good protein though!

[OverWyreGrower]

Mmmm, protein

During the winter, when there was much less 'wild' protein around (insects, frogs, mice) etc, my girls shell's were getting quite thin...

So (and you might not like this if you are a veggie!) whenever we had a roast chicken (and turkey at christmas) the girls got the carcass chucked in their run...

Both ducks and chickens will strip a carcass to absolutely nothing. They will run around with the bones, and literally pick it to pieces.

Obviously, remove the bones at night, to discourage vermin/predators etc.

Now that spring has sprung, I'll not be doing it anymore, as there are more insects and things for them to eat. Evidenced by a hen running around with a frog in her beak, being chased by everyone else who wanted the frog....

[Snadger]

.....................Luckily, we're remedying this by building more nestboxes, then hopefully we won't have squished/shattered eggs anymore!

Theoretically and going by the book this would work, but for at least five small points:-

1. Hens don't DO theory
2. They don't read books
3. Most of them are 'one sausage short of a full breakfast'
4. They have favourite nestboxes
5. They would rather lay their egg on top of a mountain of eggs rather than use the nice clean (empty) nestbox next door!

[MaureenHall]

I was going to say the same thing Snadger. My girls have a choice of 4 nestboxes but all prefer the same one! They will lay in one of the others if push comes to shove, but the other 2 are always empty

[HayleyB]

Aint that right, loads of times I have two squashed in the feedbowl nest boxes in the feed room even had a third sitting on top of the other two at one point (there are three feedbowl nests)