eating eggs

[cedarpondfarm]

As a source of extra protein for my birds, I have always boiled whatever eggs we didn\'t sell or eat and smashed them really well so there is no resemblance to an egg and in they go.  Even the shells are tiny pieces.  Just had my first experience with an egg eater.  I hope there is no connection.

There was egg yolk all over the other eggs in the communal nest and some small fragments.  It happened a few days straight before I found a hen with dried egg on her beard.  CAUGHT YA !!  or hope so  :0)  She is in solitary confinement and no more broken eggs - so far.  Can she be rehabed?

[bantamhill]

Are you finding shell fragments?

Michael

[jerryse]

Yes she can be rehabed.Use dog nail clippers and trim beak till it bleeds.Have blood stop powder handy or cauterize to stop bleeding.They can bleed to death if not stopped.A electric debeaker works great if you have one.Most of us don\'t.They will not peck a egg hard enough to break it with a sore beak and are cured by the time it heals.Beheading is the only other cure.

[Schroeder]

This is off the topic a little.  The first show I ever went to was in Columbus Ohio 2 years ago.  In fact, these were the first pure breed Ameraucanas I had ever seen.  My wife and I were looking at one of the hens when she laid an egg in front of us.  If that wasn\'t surprise enough, she immediatly turned around, pecked a hole in the egg and ate it.  If the judge had seen this, would the hen have lost points.

[cedarpondfarm]

I don\'t know the answer but couldn\'t find anything in the standard about it

[Cloverleaf Farm]

Before you maim your bird, there are other things you can try.  I cured an egg eater with a blown out egg filled with Dawn dish soap, and re-sealed with wax.  It only took once, and now, over a year later, she won\'t touch an egg, no matter how long I leave it in there.  

There is also the option of a roll-away nest box, so she never gets the chance to see the egg.

Some folks have had success by darkening the laying area, hens won\'t eat what they can\'t see.

I recently had an egg eating problem in my LF Ameraucana coop.  I knew the roo was the instigator, so he is locked up in solitary, and all the girls stopped eating the eggs once he was seperated.

Point is, there ARE things you can try, and some of them work.

[Cloverleaf Farm]

This is off the topic a little.  The first show I ever went to was in Columbus Ohio 2 years ago.  In fact, these were the first pure breed Ameraucanas I had ever seen.  My wife and I were looking at one of the hens when she laid an egg in front of us.  If that wasn\'t surprise enough, she immediatly turned around, pecked a hole in the egg and ate it.  If the judge had seen this, would the hen have lost points.

I can\'t imagine that she would have.  There is nothing in how the judges score the birds that has anything to do with eggs.  And nothing to do with behavior listed there either.  

[Beth C]

I cured an egg eater with a blown out egg filled with Dawn dish soap, and re-sealed with wax.  It only took once, and now, over a year later, she won\'t touch an egg, no matter how long I leave it in there.

I don\'t know what made me laugh harder, imagining you meticulously booby-trapping an egg or that sucker pecking into it! That\'s hysterical!! Reminds me of a story my dad used to tell about how he broke a roommate of stealing his beer...

I don\'t think Jerry meant to actually debeak her, just sore her up enough that she \"punished\" herself every time she pecked at the egg.

[Cloverleaf Farm]

I cured an egg eater with a blown out egg filled with Dawn dish soap, and re-sealed with wax.  It only took once, and now, over a year later, she won\'t touch an egg, no matter how long I leave it in there.

I don\'t know what made me laugh harder, imagining you meticulously booby-trapping an egg or that sucker pecking into it! That\'s hysterical!! Reminds me of a story my dad used to tell about how he broke a roommate of stealing his beer...

I don\'t think Jerry meant to actually debeak her, just sore her up enough that she \"punished\" herself every time she pecked at the egg.

LOL  now THAT\'S a story I\'d like to hear....

Yeah, I know, it just didn\'t sit right with me...  :/

[Beth C]

Dad was living in quarters at the VA and shared a community kitchen. He liked a particular brand of beer that was only available in PA at that time, so he\'d bring some back with him when he went home, and it kept disappearing out of the shared refrigerator. He had his suspicions, but could never catch them, so he carefully removed the cap from one (using pliers & a piece of rubber to keep from damaging it), drank part of it, and filled it back up with something yucky, carefully put the cap back on, marked it in an inconspicuous place, and put it back in the fridge. The next day, it was still in the fridge but with an ounce or so gone out of it and he never had any more beer taken...

[Cloverleaf Farm]

Dad was living in quarters at the VA and shared a community kitchen. He liked a particular brand of beer that was only available in PA at that time, so he\'d bring some back with him when he went home, and it kept disappearing out of the shared refrigerator. He had his suspicions, but could never catch them, so he carefully removed the cap from one (using pliers & a piece of rubber to keep from damaging it), drank part of it, and filled it back up with something yucky, carefully put the cap back on, marked it in an inconspicuous place, and put it back in the fridge. The next day, it was still in the fridge but with an ounce or so gone out of it and he never had any more beer taken...

LOL!!!!!!!!!  That\'s awesome!!!!!!

[jerryse]

I used the beak trim method on a araucana pullet that I discovered to be laying but had never got a egg.I now have 2 eggs from her.A sore beak is a good deterent.It is like trimming a fingernail too close.You are careful with that finger until the tendeness goes away.

[John]

Jerry,

Sounds like a very good idea...once you figure out the culprit.

[Guest]

I found that when I upped the protein level of the birds, they stopped eating the eggs. Also, when they could get outside helped. I almost only have an egg eating problem in the winter when they won\'t go outside.

Another deterrant is vicks vaporub. Imagine getting that in your mouth, it takes a long time to get it off or away.
I use to put it on chair legs when I had puppies in the house so they wouldn\'t chew on them. It only takes one lick...blow out the egg and use an empty syringe to put some inside the shell.

[Tailfeathers]

I didn\'t see an answer to the question of whether their is a correlation between feeding birds eggs and then them becoming an egg eater.

I don\'t think so.  For one thing, I don\'t think the birds are smart enough to know what a cooked egg is, let alone relate it to one in the shell that\'s been layed.  

Secondly, I take all the chicken and duck eggs from the incubator that don\'t hatch or aren\'t developing right when candling, break them in a bowl with the shell, add some cayenne pepper, and then nuke that into a nice big souffle.  The chickens, ducks, guineas, peafowl, all eat it like there\'s no tomorrow and I\'ve never had a problem with an egg eater.

God Bless,