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Egg Eating |
by Jennifer Floyd
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| I have had egg eating crop up every so often over the years; usually as a result of pullets who haven't been given nests yet & lay in the open (or just lay in the middle of the pen anyway because they're clueless), too few nests (they fight & break eggs), nests insufficiently hidden, lack of something in their food, or boredom. First fix your nests: have the nests face the wall, so that unless they're going in, they can't walk past & see what's inside, or use fly-up nests several feet off the ground w/a perch to step in, strips of burlap or coarse fabric tacked over the openings, or bits of plywood leaned over the front to make things more hidden, etc. Then, put a fake egg in each nest (plaster is best, but glass, wood, plastic or golf balls are OK), maybe a few out on the floor. Finally, put some grain in straw litter on the floor, throw in some apples, cut open squash, a flake of alfalfa hay, a bucket of sprouted oats, or the like. Make sure the oyster shell containers are topped up. Pick up eggs at least daily, preferable 2x/day (at least for the 1st week). After a month, I take out all the extra fake eggs, before someone gets the notion to go broody. By then, everyone is fine, no more egg eating. Never had one that this didn't cure. |
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