Some of my eggs are being pecked and broken.
Today I threw a broken one into the run and it was quickly consumed by as many hens who could reach.
Any ideas to why they started doing this? How to prevent?
Thanks :-)
Pecked Eggs
all the hens will run to get one, you need to spy and find the culprit who is pecking them in the nesting boxes. pen her up and feed her high protien diet for a while, and check to be sure all your eggs have good strong shells, if not give oyster shell for a while.
also, do you have something cushy in the boxes? i had one hen who for a while insisted on scooting away all the soft stuff, then plopped her egg onto the concret floor, always cracking the end. soft eggs or cracked eggs are more liekly to get pecked, they are considered defective. or a clumsy hen could be walking on them, you may need to do some nail trimming as well...
I had a hen who started pecking her eggs. It wasn't long before there was no egg at all. She began eating them herself, shell and all. Very frustrating. I finally just got rid of her because once they decide they like eggs as well as we do, it's a tough battle to see who's going to get to eat it. She always seemed to win.
But it all started with just a little pecked spot on an egg.
Someone said to put the wooden eggs in nest. They are supposed to peck at them, and eventually get discouraged when they don't break.
They get distracted pretty easy when they don't get expected results.
I've never tried it though. Good luck. I hope she stops.