Egg eating and roll away nest box.

[Graham K]

I have just found the girls eating the one and only egg that one of them lays each day, I think they have only just started doing this so I want to try and avoid the very drastic measures that some of the threads mention.

I have had a quick look at roll away nest boxes and am a bit confused as to how they work. My girls "lay", at the moment, in a nest box with a flip up roof so I can get at the eggs and they sit on a bed of straw to keep them comfortable and warm, herein is the problem. All the roll away boxes I have seen just seem to have a bare floor and some sort of slope for the eggs to roll down. Do I still put straw in the roll away or just leave it bare?

I'll probably be looking at a conversion job on the hen house so I want to know just how these boxes are supposed to work.

All comments appreciated, thanks.

Graham.

[RichmondHens]

I've never had to use them but I would imagine they should be left bare in order for the egg to roll away.

You also need to address why the hens have started to do this. Is someone laying soft shells and they have discovered that eggs taste nice? Do they have adequate greenery and space to stop them getting bored? Are they getting plenty of protein in their diet?

Just a few thoughts.

[Graham K]

The girls may be a bit bored at the mo' as they have been shut in quite a bit lately because of the weather, hopefully that will improve soon.

I've added a picture (I hope) of their "house", the nest box is on the end and I should be able to convert it to a roll away without too much trouble if I have to. Also, while I think of it, the roost area has a window in the door so both the roost and nest box are quite bright should I cover/remove the window to make it a bit darker when the girls are laying?

The plastic is to keep off the rain and is well ventilated and shaded in the summer so they don't "cook"!

No soft shells that we have found, the ones they are eating seem to be good eggs.

Daily feed is smallholder range layers pellets in a hanging feeder so they can help themselves and corn at the end of the day, they are eating and drinking fine.

[Glutton4...]

I wedged the 'roll-away' inserts in my nest boxes, and added a small amount of shavings, just to keep them happy. They don't like them, but I don't want them eating eggs. If you have one egg-eater today, tomorrow they'll all be at it.

I read some good advice in the H@ynes Chicken Manual (excellent book), cut a strip of black plastic into streamers and tack this across the nest-box entrance, so they hang down, covering the opening (like in some factory/warehouse doorways), this stops other Hens from looking in and helping themselves.

You will also need to be very vigilant with your egg collecting - think every thirty minutes for a week or so, in the hope that she'll forget about it. If they all start, it'll drive ya mad!

Good luck!

[Glutton4...]

Nearly forgot - I always keep an assortment of fake eggs in the nest-boxes, this encourages them to lay in there, but it can also stop them eating them if they keep pecking at the fakes with no 'reward.' Fingers crossed...

[Jax]

I had a week or so of chickens eating eggs and managed to catch them at it before it became an ingrained habit. I put golf balls in their and collected eggs as soon as they were laid (but Im at home all day every day so I can do that for others its not a possibility) and that seemed to put them off. I also read that you can try an eggshell with mustard in as the taste would put them off. I havent tried that one so cant personally vouch for it. Is it possible that where/how she is laying her eggs they are getting broken and then they are eating them?

[RichmondHens]

Definitely darken the nestbox area and if possible black out the window too. G4's suggestion of fake eggs is a good one although it also might encourage them to go broody, which you may not wish!

[chris]

lol at the chicken peeping through the window.

I tried golf balls for my egg eater, eventually finding out that if one knocked and egg and it cracked then it'd eat it - if the other saw they'd join in. I solved it by collecting the eggs more often.

[raine]

I use the rollaway inserts and they have worked a treat,especially as we are at work all day and they girls dont lay early enough for us to collect them before we leave

[petal]

you won't like this but I have to say that if I had an egg eater it would end up in a pot. As a sussex cockerel did once- the only time this has happened(word gets around amongst our birds....). its a contagious habit so I find its best to watch when suspicious and catch in the act the culprit- with yolk on their face.......

[mothhawk]

When I kept banties (many years ago now, alas) nine times out of ten if they started eating eggs it was because they were desperate for shell to make new eggs. Do you give them plenty of oyster shell?

I solved the problem, (which seems to occur more this time of year when they are laying lots of eggs) by recycling all my eggshells back to them, as an addition to oyster shell. I kept a foil pie tin in the oven and all eggshells went in that, to bake whenever the oven was on, then crushed them and tipped them out for the banties. Never had an egg pecked after that.

(The garden birds and next door's peacock also pecked at the crushed shells)

[Graham K]

An update, and thanks for all the ideas.

Using some left over weed control fabric I have covered the window and fitted hanging strips on the inside in front of the nest boxes (a bit like a 70's bead curtain). I've also replaced the divider between the two nest boxes with a larger piece of plywood so the chickens CAN'T see each other when laying. Re painted with creocoat making sure all the corners and bits you can't see were covered.

So far so good, no egg eating and one of the girls is now back to laying daily. The other two are still not laying regularly but a combination of one being ill a while back (fine now) and a load of feathers in the run (not sure if they are both molting) may have something to do with it!

Again, thanks for all the replies.

Graham.