Sometimes the hens eat their own eggs, but this behavior mostly stems from a mistake. The hen accidentally breaks an egg and when she approaches to understand what has happened she realizes that the contents are tasty, nutritious and begins to eat it. Unfortunately, this habit spreads quickly among other specimens and, if you do not intervene promptly, you will have a lot of trouble stopping it. In this tutorial we will describe techniques to ensure that your chickens have a proper environment and diet, so that they lay healthy and strong eggs; you can also learn how to stop this behavior in the bud before it spreads throughout the chicken coop.
Steps
Method 1 of 3: Organize a Healthy Environment
Step 1. Reduce the chances of the eggs breaking by preventing the nesting nests from being too crowded
At a minimum, there should be one 12 '' x 11 '' nest for every four or five hens. If the spawning areas are too small or insufficient, the eggs can be trampled or crushed and the hens would be subjected to excessive stress, which would cause them to overpeck everything in the vicinity. You need to minimize the risk of breaking the eggs so that the chickens never taste their contents.
- The nests should be raised from the ground at least 60 cm and installed at least 1.2 m from the perches.
- Move from the spawning area all the specimens that develop a hatching behavior (i.e. they continue to sit on the eggs to hatch them and bring them to hatch), so as to prevent them from occupying a lot of precious space and at the same time promote a certain rotation among the hens who lay down.
- Consider installing nests that roll the eggs into a tray as the hen gets up, thus protecting them from the beak and legs of the animal that could break them.
Step 2. Build the spawning area in a dark and quiet area
The bright lights stress the chickens and make them nervous, leading them to pecking much more often. Rotate the box or nest so that it is not facing the entrance to the chicken coop and is protected from direct sunlight; do not install any very bright lights. You need to cover skylights and windows for the environment to be comfortable for the animals.
- Eliminate anything that generates loud noises or that could suddenly move, frightening the chickens. If they panic, they run away from the nest at the risk of trampling and breaking the eggs.
- Furthermore, a dimly lit environment keeps the chicken coop at a comfortable temperature; a too hot climate, in fact, makes the chickens irritable and causes them to peck much more.
Step 3. Provide all the necessary substrate to cushion and protect the eggs once they are laid
Make sure each nest is always filled with a few inches of clean, dry substrate (such as wheat straw). If you prevent the eggs from accidentally breaking (bumping into each other or falling on a hard, unpadded surface), then the chickens will never have a chance to taste them and understand how good they are.
If an egg breaks in the nest, clean the area immediately
Step 4. Don't let the chickens get bored
A bored and irritated hen may start pecking at everything around her; for this reason, make sure your pets always have something to do. Hang a cabbage so they can nibble on it and give them plenty of room to walk and exercise.
- Try to organize the chicken coop so that they can walk, climb or jump over different obstacles such as tree stumps and roots. If there is no such thing in your yard, then set up a ladder or swing where the chickens can climb.
- Arrange a pile of hay in the yard. The chickens will start scratching it and arranging it to form a single layer, all of which will keep them busy.
Method 2 of 3: Addressing Food Shortages
Step 1. Provide them with a balanced feed that is at least 16% protein and rich in vitamins and nutrients
Choose a specific product for laying hens. The feed should have a high content of vegetable fats and proteins.
Remember that any extra starch (from kitchen leftovers or cereal crops) must be supplemented with other proteins because otherwise it would lower the protein percentage of your chickens' feed
Step 2. Give the chickens calcium supplements
If your pets suffer from a deficiency of this mineral, then they will not be able to produce eggs with a strong shell. If the shell is weak and breaks under the weight of the hen, then the hen will have a chance to taste the yolk and egg white. Once she discovers that she is high in protein, fat, and that the shell provides her with her calcium requirements, then she will start breaking up and eating the others intentionally. Other specimens will observe this behavior and imitate it.
- You can supplement the calcium by offering the chickens ground oyster shells or a piece of limestone. Incorporate about 1 kg of this product into 45 kg of feed or build a separate feeder for this food so that the chickens can eat it as they need.
- Offer the chickens a full plate of fresh whole milk every day for several days to increase their calcium intake.
- Do not use eggshells as a source of this mineral, otherwise the hens may recognize them by sight or smell and start eating their own eggs. If you decide to offer them the shells anyway, then you need to finely grind them, so that the animals cannot understand what it is.
- You may find that some eggs have a softer shell during the hot season; this is because the hens are unable to absorb calcium efficiently in very hot weather. For this reason, offer more supplements during the summer days.
Step 3. Make sure there is always plenty of water available
Even if they eat a balanced, calcium-rich diet, dehydrated chickens can be tempted to look for fluids in their eggs. Chickens need more water than other birds, so make sure they always have plenty of water available and that it's fresh and clean.
You can add vitamins to the water to help hens absorb calcium
Method 3 of 3: Break the Habit
Step 1. Identify and remove the egg (s) that break and eat eggs from the house as soon as possible
You may not be able to catch the hen in the act, but if you observe the whole chicken coop for a few days, you should be able to recognize who is responsible. It should have dried yolk residue on its beak or sides of its head, or you may notice it searches its nests for eggs to eat.
- Isolate the chicken from others, so that it cannot eat other people's eggs and does not "infect" the rest of the animals with its bad behavior. Monitor the rest of the coop to see if there are no other cases of eggs being eaten.
- If you find other broken and eaten egg residues, then it means that the behavior has spread to other hens, which you will need to locate and isolate.
- Isolation may be upsetting enough for the chicken to break its habit.
Step 2. Collect the eggs as soon as possible
Most hens lay their eggs before 10 am, so the sooner you remove them from the nest, the less chance the animals will break them and start eating them.
Collect eggs at least twice a day or even more often if possible
Step 3. Use a fake egg to fool the chickens
Place a golf ball, white-painted rock, or plastic egg (which you can buy at pet stores) in each nest. Collect the real eggs, as usual, but leave the fake ones. When the hens peck "the egg" they will find that they are unable to break it and will stop seeing it as a food source. Eventually they will stop trying to crack real eggs.
You can also use an undamaged but empty shell. Make a hole in each end of the egg and blow the contents out. Then fill the shell with mustard and put it back in the nest. Hens do not like mustard and this "joke" will teach them very quickly that eggs are not tasty at all
Step 4. You can use blinders, cut the beak or decide to kill the hen that continues to eat the eggs despite all your interventions
Unfortunately, once it's triggered, it's not very easy to stop this behavior. If you have tried any method, but the hen continues to destroy the eggs, then you will have to resort to extreme measures, such as cutting the beak (removing the sharp tip with a hot blade) or killing the animal.
- If you don't want to implement these solutions, then you can purchase special blinders that prevent the chicken from seeing straight ahead; in fact, if he sees only the sides, he will not be able to find and peck the egg.
- You can also consider isolating the specimen forever and keeping it separate from others until most of the eggs have been laid and collected. It will continue to destroy its own eggs, but the others will be safe (unless the rest of the specimens lay more eggs when you put the "culprit" back with her mates).
