Naughty hens!

[stanhol]

My neighbour has just bought some new chickens, who are laying, BUT are eating their eggs. Evidence found and also caught in the act!
Unfortunately the hens are with the horse a mile away so she cant remove the eggs before they start to eat them. Any ideas?

Many thanks, Sandra

[Hermit]

Never had the problem with any birds, and ive been breeding finches and small parrots for a decade. The only problems i have with naughty hens are when i had them with finches, the finches kept dissapearing, i did not know what was happening until i say a £40 gouldian land then a chicken grabbed and ate it. Never again. But nicked this of answers.com, hope this helps
OH how I hate when that happens, the hens find out that eggs taste good and start eating them.
There are a few maintenance things that need to be checked and a couple tricks to get those naughty girls back in order.
First nutrition, make sure you are feeding your hens a formulated layer diet, usually 16 to 18 percent protein with some sort of calcium supplement added.
Not having enough protein or calcium in their diet will trigger them into eating eggs which are both protein filled and calcium rich.
Offer extra calcium in the form of oyster shell, if the eggs are soft for lack of calcium they might be breaking in the nest when the hens jump in and out.
And for a short time, maybe a week, offer extra protein in the way of yogurt or milk, stir a little into their feed to make a wet dough.
Next, make sure their nest boxes are about 3 ft off the ground, if a hungry hen can see the eggs and reach in to get it she will eat it.
These are all the maintenance things to do.
Now the trick
Get as many eggs as you have nests.
with a sharp nail or screw make a hole on the top and bottom of the egg. Take a wooden or metal skewer or stick and stir up the egg inside.
Blow out the contents of the egg, use it for scrambled eggs or make a cake.
Now fill the empty egg shells with dish soap and cover the holes with a little glue or tape.
Place the trick eggs in the nests.
Once the hens get the soap in their mouths it won't be long before they stop eating the eggs.
During this process it will be very important for you to go out and collect the good eggs every 2 hours or so, so that the only egg available to the hens will be the trick egg.
Good Luck!!!!

[stanhol]

Dear Hermit,

Many thanks for the reply and all the information,I will certainly pass it on. I particularly like the soap idea! Just need to be there when they taste it! ha ha ha

Thanks again, Sandra

[walldanzig]

I had this recently I tried golf balls and moving the nest box this cracked it so to speak

[Llamas]

Heh, heh, hehh. It is soooo frustrating when they start doing this. Another reason why I'm rather fond of our ducks.

[moola]

egg eating is thought by some to be down to low protein levels. Are your friends chooks getting lots of treats? they should be on layer pellets (they have the correct protein levels) for most of the day....

[Birdie Wife]

It can be really, really hard to stop hens eating eggs - once they get a taste for them, they rarely stop. You could try roll-away nest boxes - if your hens will use them, you're onto a winner!