Egg eating

[hooraynana]

Oh its stressing me out ;-(
Poor Batty got eggbound last week , and I took her to the Vet , who injected her with calcium and then lo and behold 2 days later she's back to normal.
Or so I thought - now she is eating her eggs.
Any advice , how do you stop this and why is she doing it ?

[MaureenHall]

If you're there when she lays her egg, whip it away quick! Other things you can try are putting false eggs in the nest box so she tries to break them open without success. Have the nest box sloping towards the back so the egg rolls away hopefully to get hidden in some straw bedding. Fill an empty egg shell with mustard (the stronger the better), glue it back together and put it in the nest box; when she breaks it open the taste won't be what she's expecting. Nothing will cure her overnight, it all takes time and patience, and unfortunately some chickens will always be egg-eaters and that's when you have to make the decision whether to keep her anyway or to cull her.

[frias]

She may be eating the eggs because she's short of calcium. Are they soft shelled and do they get broken easily when laid? My lot will eat any softies but not the ones with a proper shell. Is she getting enough oyster shell?

[hooraynana]

she laid a couple with soft bits like inwards bumps on them before this egg eating business started

[Reb Williams]

Were the eggs quite weak, too? Ours used to eat the eggs with the weakest shells (which goes along with the calcium prob I spose) and stopped doing it when the shells got stronger.

R

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