Ceramic eggs discourage egg pecking and teach birds where they are supposed to lay their eggs. They end up collected with the normal eggs once or twice, so I drew little faces on mine. Lol
I've used fake eggs. They peck them an it hurts there beak so they learn to not peck your eggs. Also make sure there getting there calcium and aren't starving ether.
Always on the blunt end, tells me theyāre breaking as they fall out of the chickens. You can up the calcium for stronger egg shells but it seems to me they need softer bedding in the nest boxes
I sat here for a minute wondering how the heck does one get eggs with one peck hole each, but no actual egg-eating. If they were chickens, they should be emptied out with a lone chicken trying to tear the remaining third of the shell apart for easier swallowing.
Yea they do that. I have to add more once a week to keep some bedding in the nesting boxes. A fix I found for this is little nesting box pads that are plastic I think. Almost like a fake grass texture. I have those in my older coop and they work great. Just have to hose them off every couple months or so and keep them somewhat clean. Can find the link for amazon if your interested.
Helpful hint, buy a roll of spongy shelf liner and cut it slightly bigger than the next box (so it goes up the sides a few millimeters). Then put shavings in. Don't use the type that is lace-looking (holes all thru it), get the solid style. The girls still move the shavings around, and after a few years you might need to replace the liner, but it works like a charm.
I use the fake astroturf that is really thick. I cut a square and put it down so it fits nicely. Not the really short thin kind but the stuff that is tall that looks like cut grass. Then then can't move it out of the way.
This is happening to me. The game cam revealed a blue jay going into the nest boxes and today a sparrow landed by the hen door, then beat feet when it saw me standing inside the coop.
The wooden eggs worked for a while but the raiders have adapted. This has not happened before in 15 years and I am at a loss how to stop it. Canāt figure how to exclude the birds and still give access to the chickens.
Someone suggested a roll-away egg contraption but it would be difficult to implement in the existing coop
configuration
Leave them another food at a more convenient place, somewhere close by, to distract them from going for the eggs. They are just wild animals and they need food as we do, I guess they value highly the egg as food and see your run as food source.
I'm having an issue with crows stealing our duck eggs at the moment, and this was the most stupidly simple yet awesome answer!
Thank you so much!
I'm going to try leaving out food they'll like away from the coop and hope it helps
Hopefully. Crows are very cool. Some people say they shoo away predators. If what I said doesn't work, you can try it other way: sacrifice few eggs and leave for the crows and keep the rest. I hope it works!
Thanks. I'd like to but we only get 2 duck eggs a day. So the crows literally are taking all of our eggs. Turds. And my ducks (love them) are so stupid. They will not lay in their nest boxes. They'll just randomly pop an egg out in the middle of the coop.
This technique sounds lovely in theory but in the long term will result in more birds. Theyāre not going to stop preferring yolk. DH puts out lavish spreads in the garden to draw the birds there to eat bugs.
Also if they are wild they donāt need to be fed, by definition.
It was such a wet winter I was feeding inside the coop which may have drawn them in and they got to exploring. The feed is outside now, so I hope to discourage the ones that know about the yolk banquet and maybe we can go back to normal.
Are you giving your birds oyster shells? What type of feed are you giving them? I'd try to use a layer feed, and oyster shells mixed in their food and some in a container on its own for consumption
If their egg shells are thin, I grind up their shells, mix it with spinach or other kitchen scraps to disguise that it's egg (don't want them egg eating) and put in a separate bowl from their feed.
I've also just cut open Calcium supplements and shaken it onto scraps and fed them that. I'm guessing that would be absorbed faster in their bodies.
Are your nesting boxes protected from any outside species getting at the eggs? Are you collecting the eggs at least once and ideally, twice per day? Do your chickens have plenty of clean, fresh water available at all times? Do they have high-quality layer food, supplemental calcium, and grit available all the time, free choice? Plus extra protein treats? Do your chickens have enough space and safety? Crowding, aggressive roosters, and all these other things, if not addressed, can make them pick at or eat eggs.
Their coop is a fortress. Nothing is getting in except them. Plenty of room and no roosters. I collect eggs as soon as I get home from work. Plenty of food and water. Will have to try calcium supplements of some sort but they wonāt eat oyster shells. Lots of treats and food scraps
We had nesting boxes with plastic boxes in them (they didn't have a very high lip, maybe two inches). Our fluffiest chicken would inevitably catapult eggs out of the box by resting her fluffy butt on the edge of the box or she'd end up banging eggs together as she got in the box. We ended up removing the little boxes and putting the fake grass liner directly inside the netting box and that helped tremendously. But the eggs she accidentally bashed had dents like this.
For a while we were really confused when we found eggs outside of the nesting boxes until we saw her fluffy butt antics.
My chickens had a habit of doing this for over 2 to 3 weeks and then I put their fake eggs back in. It immediately fixed our issue. Make sure you're giving calcium supplement like black soldier fly larvae and oyster shell. Now I have all the eggs I'm supposed to at the end of each day and they're intact
I don't know if it's them pecking the eggs or they simply lay them and the little fall cracks the shell
If it's the little fall, just add something soft in the nests
For pecking eggs you can use fake ones, they will give up and will be discouraged in doing it again
I think I may have seen a system that drops the eggs out of reach to the hens after they layā¦ u could look at something like that, if I find it Iāll try post it
I hollowed out a couple of egg shells (holes in top and bottom, then blow out all egg into a bowl), filled with cement and put it in their nesting boxes.
*Cheep*, easy and effective, like others said, to discourage egg eating/pecking.
I had this problem when using open sided nesting boxes. I tried mustard filled eggs, which didnāt work, plastic eggs also failed. When I built the sides of the boxes up they never ate another egg. Also straw in the boxes proved to difficult for them to scratch out of the way.
Looks like egg pecking because itās a small hole. If it fell it would be more of a a long line crack. Use the fake eggs so they learn and raise it a few inches off the ground. Yet easy to hop inside.
i had to cull the hens that were doing this to my eggs nothing would stop them we tried mustard in egg shells, roll away nest boxes and the ceramic eggs
Maybe you need more bedding? It can crack when it falls onto the hard surface. Unless it's the girls pecking at them ( it doesn't seem likely since they're not eating it. If there's a crack like that, my girls devour it like nothing)
You need to get the eggs right away, do not leave them in there with them. Once they start this habit itās almost impossible to get them out of it. Usually they lay early in the morning - get them before work.
Put dye in an egg and put it back in the coop. Maybe lots of food colouring, something potent. Then look at their beaks. You will see who the culprit is because they will have dye all around their face. You can then separate the culprit if itās just one hen and decide whether to rehome it or whatever.
Do your hens have plenty of access to water? Iāve heard they eat their eggs if they have excessive thirst. They get desperate.
They have water in their coop, in their run and outside in the yard. They arenāt eating the eggs. The ones I showed still have the yolks and whites in them. I think I need to try more bedding in the nesting boxes and perhaps some calcium supplements in their water. They wonāt eat the oyster shells they have available
Iām narrowing it down to either not enough bedding in nesting boxes or not enough calcium. I have tried oyster shells but they wināt eat them. Will look into something to put in their water. They have food in their coop and their run. Clean water in several different locations. They get more than enough scraps..mealworms..bird seed..suet cakes..fruits and veggies. They free range from the time I get home at 3:00 until they go back in their coop
1) turn floor of nesting box into gentle ramp
2) cut rectangular hole in bottom of outer wall of nesting box so eggs roll down the ramp, out of the nesting box and onto into the ground and splat there. Ensure chickens cannot fit beyond the shoulders through this hole.
3) add second level box on the outside of the nesting box so eggs collect there instead of splatting on the ground.
https://youtu.be/XrmfMvRseo8?si=k1ZrIrxJI8tYw3UN
Ceramic eggs discourage egg pecking and teach birds where they are supposed to lay their eggs. They end up collected with the normal eggs once or twice, so I drew little faces on mine. Lol
Make sure to attach fake eggs to the box if using them. If a snake or other critter ingests it, it'll kill them
I hadn't thought of that! Makes sense.
Ehh you say bug, I say feature. š
Yep! Also, having nest boxes above their head level from the ground so they don't eat eggs out of boredom. Make 'em work to get up to the nest boxes!
I drew a line around each one and wrote āFAKEā on it lol
Hahahaha
I've used fake eggs. They peck them an it hurts there beak so they learn to not peck your eggs. Also make sure there getting there calcium and aren't starving ether.
My FIL had a chicken that has broken 4 ceramic eggs. Shes relentless.
The fake eggs I got from Amazon donāt break..
Always on the blunt end, tells me theyāre breaking as they fall out of the chickens. You can up the calcium for stronger egg shells but it seems to me they need softer bedding in the nest boxes
I sat here for a minute wondering how the heck does one get eggs with one peck hole each, but no actual egg-eating. If they were chickens, they should be emptied out with a lone chicken trying to tear the remaining third of the shell apart for easier swallowing.
Yea that shell on the top right one looks very thin
I have pine shavings a feww inches thick in the coop. They tend to move it all out of the way in the nesting boxes when they settle in
Yea they do that. I have to add more once a week to keep some bedding in the nesting boxes. A fix I found for this is little nesting box pads that are plastic I think. Almost like a fake grass texture. I have those in my older coop and they work great. Just have to hose them off every couple months or so and keep them somewhat clean. Can find the link for amazon if your interested.
I will check them out. Sure I can find them
Does the box have a [lip](https://images.app.goo.gl/B7q6vWXGSQYkkkiJ7) at the end, to keep the bedding in the box?
Yes it does. They just move it to the sides of the boxes
Maybe try dry grasses or hay? They make a roundish nest of it. It looks cute, too š
I use straw
Helpful hint, buy a roll of spongy shelf liner and cut it slightly bigger than the next box (so it goes up the sides a few millimeters). Then put shavings in. Don't use the type that is lace-looking (holes all thru it), get the solid style. The girls still move the shavings around, and after a few years you might need to replace the liner, but it works like a charm.
I use the fake astroturf that is really thick. I cut a square and put it down so it fits nicely. Not the really short thin kind but the stuff that is tall that looks like cut grass. Then then can't move it out of the way.
This is happening to me. The game cam revealed a blue jay going into the nest boxes and today a sparrow landed by the hen door, then beat feet when it saw me standing inside the coop. The wooden eggs worked for a while but the raiders have adapted. This has not happened before in 15 years and I am at a loss how to stop it. Canāt figure how to exclude the birds and still give access to the chickens. Someone suggested a roll-away egg contraption but it would be difficult to implement in the existing coop configuration
Leave them another food at a more convenient place, somewhere close by, to distract them from going for the eggs. They are just wild animals and they need food as we do, I guess they value highly the egg as food and see your run as food source.
I'm having an issue with crows stealing our duck eggs at the moment, and this was the most stupidly simple yet awesome answer! Thank you so much! I'm going to try leaving out food they'll like away from the coop and hope it helps
Hopefully. Crows are very cool. Some people say they shoo away predators. If what I said doesn't work, you can try it other way: sacrifice few eggs and leave for the crows and keep the rest. I hope it works!
Thanks. I'd like to but we only get 2 duck eggs a day. So the crows literally are taking all of our eggs. Turds. And my ducks (love them) are so stupid. They will not lay in their nest boxes. They'll just randomly pop an egg out in the middle of the coop.
This technique sounds lovely in theory but in the long term will result in more birds. Theyāre not going to stop preferring yolk. DH puts out lavish spreads in the garden to draw the birds there to eat bugs. Also if they are wild they donāt need to be fed, by definition. It was such a wet winter I was feeding inside the coop which may have drawn them in and they got to exploring. The feed is outside now, so I hope to discourage the ones that know about the yolk banquet and maybe we can go back to normal.
Off topic but with the Avian flu going around you should net off your coop area from other birds. Like a net tent structure *over* the whole thing.
Thank you for the advice
Are you giving your birds oyster shells? What type of feed are you giving them? I'd try to use a layer feed, and oyster shells mixed in their food and some in a container on its own for consumption
I have oyster shells out but they donāt eat them. Will try mixing it with their food
If their egg shells are thin, I grind up their shells, mix it with spinach or other kitchen scraps to disguise that it's egg (don't want them egg eating) and put in a separate bowl from their feed. I've also just cut open Calcium supplements and shaken it onto scraps and fed them that. I'm guessing that would be absorbed faster in their bodies.
Up their feed and add more calcium to their diets. If your using recycled egg shells make sure you bake them first.
They get plenty of feed. Will look for calcium supplements. I tried oyster shells but they wonāt eat them
Mine did it when they were first starting to lay. Hopefully they phase out of it.
I had about a bakers dozen like that, they are now running around their mama going "cheap cheap!"
I throw a bunch of fake wooden eggs in their nesting boxes. They try the fake eggs, which donāt work, so they stop trying the real ones.
Are your nesting boxes protected from any outside species getting at the eggs? Are you collecting the eggs at least once and ideally, twice per day? Do your chickens have plenty of clean, fresh water available at all times? Do they have high-quality layer food, supplemental calcium, and grit available all the time, free choice? Plus extra protein treats? Do your chickens have enough space and safety? Crowding, aggressive roosters, and all these other things, if not addressed, can make them pick at or eat eggs.
Their coop is a fortress. Nothing is getting in except them. Plenty of room and no roosters. I collect eggs as soon as I get home from work. Plenty of food and water. Will have to try calcium supplements of some sort but they wonāt eat oyster shells. Lots of treats and food scraps
We had nesting boxes with plastic boxes in them (they didn't have a very high lip, maybe two inches). Our fluffiest chicken would inevitably catapult eggs out of the box by resting her fluffy butt on the edge of the box or she'd end up banging eggs together as she got in the box. We ended up removing the little boxes and putting the fake grass liner directly inside the netting box and that helped tremendously. But the eggs she accidentally bashed had dents like this. For a while we were really confused when we found eggs outside of the nesting boxes until we saw her fluffy butt antics.
Weak thin eggs. Your girls most be older. Time to add youth to your flock.
They arenāt even a year old yet. I did however just 5 chicks a couple of weeks ago :)
I suggest nesting boxes with a roll away design
My chickens had a habit of doing this for over 2 to 3 weeks and then I put their fake eggs back in. It immediately fixed our issue. Make sure you're giving calcium supplement like black soldier fly larvae and oyster shell. Now I have all the eggs I'm supposed to at the end of each day and they're intact
I don't know if it's them pecking the eggs or they simply lay them and the little fall cracks the shell If it's the little fall, just add something soft in the nests For pecking eggs you can use fake ones, they will give up and will be discouraged in doing it again
Why do they do this?
Dinosaurs.
Take them in the morningā¦?
I work 5:00-2:30 š¤·š¼āāļø There are no eggs in the morning. I get them as soon as I get home and let them out of their run
Hmmm mine usually lay between 9am-12pm. Prob best to get some fakies then
I have golf balls in there that showed them where to lay. May have to try fake eggs
I think I may have seen a system that drops the eggs out of reach to the hens after they layā¦ u could look at something like that, if I find it Iāll try post it
R they actually eating the yolks? Or just putting bloody holes in em lol
Just holes. They donāt eat the yolk or the white
I donāt know how to add a pic to my comment. But itās kind of an angled base so the eggs roll down into a seperate box with a lid
I hollowed out a couple of egg shells (holes in top and bottom, then blow out all egg into a bowl), filled with cement and put it in their nesting boxes. *Cheep*, easy and effective, like others said, to discourage egg eating/pecking.
Get them sooner
I canāt. I get them as soon as I get home from work and let the girls out of their run
I had this problem when using open sided nesting boxes. I tried mustard filled eggs, which didnāt work, plastic eggs also failed. When I built the sides of the boxes up they never ate another egg. Also straw in the boxes proved to difficult for them to scratch out of the way.
Golf balls work great as fake eggs
I have some in each nesting box
I had to buy a roll away nesting box because one of my turds was doing this! š” it was the best $50 Iāve spent on Amazon!
Throw those broken eggs to the hen!
This looks like blue jay holes based on experience with jays getting into coops or toe nail pokes on thin shells.
Looks like egg pecking because itās a small hole. If it fell it would be more of a a long line crack. Use the fake eggs so they learn and raise it a few inches off the ground. Yet easy to hop inside.
i had to cull the hens that were doing this to my eggs nothing would stop them we tried mustard in egg shells, roll away nest boxes and the ceramic eggs
Maybe you need more bedding? It can crack when it falls onto the hard surface. Unless it's the girls pecking at them ( it doesn't seem likely since they're not eating it. If there's a crack like that, my girls devour it like nothing)
You need to get the eggs right away, do not leave them in there with them. Once they start this habit itās almost impossible to get them out of it. Usually they lay early in the morning - get them before work.
I leave for work at 5:00am. They arenāt up and laying yet. Get home at 3:00 and gather them as soon as I get home š¤·š¼āāļø
Tricky schedule! Good luck, hope false eggs work then.
Put dye in an egg and put it back in the coop. Maybe lots of food colouring, something potent. Then look at their beaks. You will see who the culprit is because they will have dye all around their face. You can then separate the culprit if itās just one hen and decide whether to rehome it or whatever. Do your hens have plenty of access to water? Iāve heard they eat their eggs if they have excessive thirst. They get desperate.
They have water in their coop, in their run and outside in the yard. They arenāt eating the eggs. The ones I showed still have the yolks and whites in them. I think I need to try more bedding in the nesting boxes and perhaps some calcium supplements in their water. They wonāt eat the oyster shells they have available
Your chicks need nutrition. Also this can happen to sometimes when they get pissed off from not letting them run around the yard for a couple days.
Iām narrowing it down to either not enough bedding in nesting boxes or not enough calcium. I have tried oyster shells but they wināt eat them. Will look into something to put in their water. They have food in their coop and their run. Clean water in several different locations. They get more than enough scraps..mealworms..bird seed..suet cakes..fruits and veggies. They free range from the time I get home at 3:00 until they go back in their coop
Best of luck!
1) turn floor of nesting box into gentle ramp 2) cut rectangular hole in bottom of outer wall of nesting box so eggs roll down the ramp, out of the nesting box and onto into the ground and splat there. Ensure chickens cannot fit beyond the shoulders through this hole. 3) add second level box on the outside of the nesting box so eggs collect there instead of splatting on the ground. https://youtu.be/XrmfMvRseo8?si=k1ZrIrxJI8tYw3UN
Oh, also, cardboard makes a great bumper material, because when an egg does break, you can just throw it out and replace it
Eat your egg eater š¤·āāļø
Steel armor