I have 6 hens that I let run around my baren backyard (it's actually a dirt patch with 2 trees). For the past 3 or 4 weeks they have been pecking their own eggs, making holes in them and then pecking at the gooey insides.
I feed them laying pellets, chicken scratch and "kitchen goodies" (yes my hens are picky eaters- I make them popcorn, rice, oatmeal, boiled carrots and onions or anything else that I think they will eat as a snack each morning).
I thought they might be calcium deficient so I bought a sack of oyster shells from the local feed store. This didn't help.
I thought they might be sick so I bought them a package of poultry powdered vitimens from the local feed store. I have added this to their water a couple of times but it doesn't change the fact that they are pecking their eggs.
Any information will be helpful...
Hens pecking at their own eggs
It can just be a very bad habit---once they learn the eggs taste good they will do it and other chickens will learn to do it from the ones that have. I think high protein is recommended and taking the eggs away as soon as they are laid--hard to do. I think there are ways of setting up the nest box so the eggs roll away as soon as they are laid--a la commercial batteries. It can be a very big problem. I guess if you get new chickens, make sure they are not exposed to the naughty ones who will teach them the evil habit:0)
the habit, onc elearned is not easy to break. but i fyou ever want to eat your eggs, teach them now, following catscan's advice.
it is also belived to be genetic, and some breeds are more prone than others.
if they are old enough, and haven't moulted yet, you might consider a forced moulnt, look up some suggesitons online...
they at the very least need a change in their routine, so they will change theirs.... ^_^
tf
Didn't someone recommend putting hard fake "eggs" out so they get a nasty surprise when they peck them. I think someone had used those stone "agate eggs" but plastic Easter eggs filled with sawdust should work too. And maybe making sure their nesting boxes are fairly dark so the have fewer visual cues?
well, i keep a light pointed toward the nesting boxes. but somebody recommended shooting up the eggs with tabasco sauce, if you have the right size needle!
your fowl are most likely lacking protien, and would probebly thrive better if you got it up over 13 percent, scratch is 5-8 % depending on 3 grain scratch or 5 grain. and the laying pellets are usually from 12-16 %, if you are feeding 1/2 and 1/2 you most likely are not reaching the protien levels they need, if it is just a little short......every day.............before long they are in deficite. laying pellets is a sole ration provider .....untill you add to it, the scratch is inferior quality feed, and drags down the esentials with every peck. most freranged fowl supplement this with lizards and frogs, You imply your yard is barren so natural forage, or lack of may come into play. I you want it to stop,in my opinion, ( and thats all it is, but a knowlegeable one, not from no wivestales or I heards) buy quality feed, suplement with house scraps if you want, ( a chicken is a yard buzzard,lol, they are only as picky as you make them) with some golf balls in the nest, they will bang on them for a day or two and stop, more drastic would be clipping the end off thier top beak, just into the quick, it will grow back but have you ever sported a fingernail into the quick? they dont want to be bangin that into a egg, or a golf ball. nature tells them where to find what they need, and chickens are not vegatarians. There is protien in "em ar" eggs
Anytime I catch a chicken pecking an egg I catch and remove them from the pen, then they are butchered. It sounds hard hearted, but it's nearly impossible to break them of it once they get a taste for the eggs. It may mean a reduction in your layers, but if the egg peckers are left you won't have any eggs anyway.
yes ncchicken, diet has so much to do with raising chickens. i wish folks around here understood that. they just keep them in small barren pens and toss them scratch and crumbs...
Heidillyho [man i have a hard time spelling that, can i call you HH?], youa re right about that too, esp in a large flock that is being utilized for eggs and meat. that ensures others don't start the habit and you don't hatch offspirng with that tendency.
genetics/environment both always come into play...
tf