TEN EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES TO PREVENT HENS FROM EATING THEIR EGGS
Ten effective strategies to prevent hens from eating their eggs
I believe you have a big problem to fix if your hens are breaking and eating their eggs all the time.
I am aware of how upsetting it can be to inspect your chicken coops and discover a significant amount of cracked eggs in the nesting boxes. It appears that no one finds it amusing that their hens are cracking and devouring their eggs.
Thus, if you’re sick of your chickens cracking and consuming their eggs, continue reading this article through to the very conclusion.
This article contains all the information you need to understand why hens crack and eat their eggs as well as clever, simple solutions to put an end to it. Perhaps by accident, one of your hens discovered how delicious an egg was. Without a doubt, it will return for more and begin cracking eggs in the nesting boxes. Only to satiate its craving for this amazing new flavor it has discovered. She would share the delightful discovery with her buddies in a few days.And the chickens grow accustomed to this behavior over time.
For this reason, you shouldn’t overlook these customs on your chicken farm!
Why do farm-raised chicken eggs break ?
Several factors might cause eggs to crack, including:
1. Overcrowding the nesting box:
Insufficient room for your laying birds may cause awkwardness in the nesting place.
Birds in dense crowded nests are easily broken by foot traffic.
2. Insufficient bedding and cushions for the nesting area:
When there is insufficient or improper placement of bedding and nesting materials in a nesting box, such as wood shavings, rice bran, husk, etc., the eggs crack.
When laying in this kind of area, eggs often crack readily upon hitting the ground.When hens lay their eggs, they always crouch down and the eggs fall through a tiny opening.In order to prevent cracking or shattering, the eggs must land on well-laid bedding.
Moreover, keep in mind that cracked eggs near the coop tempt your hens to develop an egg-eating habit.
3. An inadequate intake of laying hens’ feed:
Cannibalism, where chickens eat their own eggs, is not that strange. Instead, it is a primal drive to live to the fullest and to eat on nutrient-dense food sources. Even if it means they have to crack their own eggs in order to eat.
When a chicken’s diet is deficient in certain vital nutrients, it will often search its surroundings for alternatives. As a result, they can peck at eggs in an effort to find a healthy meal for themselves.
4. Birds pecking out of boredom
Because they become bored fast, hens will often roam around and explore whenever they get the chance. Due of their confinement, they will play with other chickens, bully other birds, and feather, picking feathers, and consuming eggs.
Your chickens may choose to peck at eggs if they are bored in the coop or in the vicinity of the nesting location.
Why is it that preventing hens from cracking and consuming their eggs is necessary?
To be very honest with you, your hens have a nasty habit that needs to be broken right away. This is due to the fact that it gets more difficult to break this habit as the chickens on your poultry farm continue to do so.
As omnivores, hens can quickly acquire a taste for their own food and become accustomed to eating just their own eggs.
It could only take one cracked egg for your hens to acquire an appetite for eggs.
Therefore, especially in regions like this, you cannot afford to not teach your chickens the proper habits.
How can one determine which chicken is consuming eggs?
By being really watchful, you can easily determine which of your hens is up to no good and always consume the laying eggs. It’s easy to find them; the hard part is having to stop them.
You may identify the hens in your flock that are breaking and eating eggs by being watchful and keeping an eye on them.
Additionally, you can quickly identify which of your birds has eaten the eggs by looking atthe colors of their beaks.
On the beaks of hens that consume eggs, you will observe the yellow hues of dried yolks.
How To Prevent Eggs From Being Broken And Eaten By Chickens
To hens, a cracked egg is an open invitation to consume and relish meals made with raw eggs.
Therefore, the first thing to do is to make sure that eggs don’t crack.Rather than searching for answers, this will theoretically even stop your birds from ever eating eggs.
We’re all probably familiar with the proverb “prevention is better than cure.”
These are some surefire techniques to swiftly check and put an end to your birds if they have developed the nasty habit of peaking and eating their own eggs.
Read also:VITAMIN DEFICIENCY IN POULTRY: HOW TO MAKE YOUR FLOCKS STRONG AND HEALTHY
1. Give your birds the appropriate and enough feeds that include the necessary amounts of nutrients:
It’s possible that the reason your hens are devouring eggs is because they aren’t getting enough nutrients in their diet.
High-quality protein may be found in eggs, and the eggshell is primarily composed of calcium. Because of this, when these two vital elements are insufficient in their diet, your chickens will enjoy gorging on them.
Consequently, be sure to increase the amount of protein and calcium in their food and observe any changes. Egg-laying chickens require a lot of calcium in their bodies to maintain strong, healthy bones in addition to the production of eggs.
Additionally, if your birds don’t get enough calcium in their diet, their eggs will have thin or soft shells. These eggs have a higher risk of susceptible breaking and cracking when they are placed or trodden upon within the nesting area.
2. To prevent eggs from breaking when they are being laid, always ensure that their nesting place is well-padded:
As previously mentioned, poorly cushioned nesting boxes can result in cracked and broken eggs.
To ensure that the eggs have a gentle landing, you must have adequate nesting materials evenly distributed throughout the boxes.
3. Prevent crowding in the area used for nesting:
Such things shouldn’t even be permitted on the property. Enough space is essential for your hens, especially if they are housed in a deep litter system.
If not, chicken develop naughty behaviors likebullying, picking at feathers, pecking at one another, protecting food, and consuming eggs.
Each hen should have a minimum of 4 square feet in the coop.
In order to conveniently accommodate laying birds, provide a variety of roomy nesting boxes throughout the farm.
4. Gather eggs as frequently as you can:
When meticulously carried out and kept to a farm schedule, this action will assist save a good number of your eggs.
Keep in mind that the hens who consume your eggs will only peck at eggs that are visible within the coop. There will be far fewer broken eggs for a variety of reasons if you develop the practice of frequently collecting your eggs every day.
All day, hens will lay as long as they are eating a healthy food and are in well-lit surroundings.
Egg yield is significantly increased by cool surroundings and good illumination on your chicken farm.
It is known that hens lay most of their eggs in the morning and up until noon. This implies that there won’t be many eggs available at other times.
To make sure your chickens don’t break them, you may even pick eggs every hour of the day if you’re feeling really adventurous.
If you are gathering your eggs by hand from the nest boxes, aim to pick them at least five times a day.
5. Using golf balls, plastic eggs, and other fictitious eggs as a ploy to get birds to quit pecking:
Using a decoy can be helpful if your birds have already become accustomed to breaking and eating eggs. You can encourage egg-eating birds to be confused by using decoy eggs in your nesting boxes.
Rubber, plastic, wooden, and even golf balls are excellent materials for this kind of work.
The mischievous chickens are given these decoys to nibble at and attempt to break through the nesting boxes. The birds will be pecking at wood, plastic, and/or rubber, but only this once. And after a few tries, they grow tired of it, start to relax, and eventually give up the habit.
6. Putting an egg mixture that repels in the nesting area:
This is again another really potent one technique to deter birds from consuming their eggs. It is using materials that chickens detest to stuff partially cracked eggs.
For instance, English mustard, which has a yellowish appearance similar to yoke and is strongly hated by chickens, can be used to fill empty shells. Another is using yellowish liquid soap inside of empty eggs. It only takes a taste of this to turn them off completely, and even if they do end up going back because of habit, it won’t take long for them to break the habit.
Such decoys are excellent in breaking birds’ egg-eating routines.
7. Divide the layers that consume eggs from the rest:
With the straightforward methods previously describe how to identify the hen in your flock that is consuming your eggs. They are easily recognized, and you may swiftly remove them from the flock as soon as you become aware of their behavior.
Put them in a different enclosure, ideally one that is still part of the coop but isn’t near the other laying birds. But by doing this, you will prevent the egg-eating one from passing on this behavior to the other members of the flock.
To prevent the egg-eating chickens from consuming the eggs in the new confinements as well, always remember to collect their eggs first.
The split chickens can view the flock but are unable to go with them; a modest, roomy cage inside the coop will do.
Consequently, they are unable to present their new routines.
More significantly, they would no longer be acquainted with one other or their place in the pecking order.
After a period, when you reunite them with the flock, they become less interested in pecking and eating lay eggs and more focused on their position in the pecking order.
Read also:WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CAGE FREE, FREE RANGE, PASTURE RAISED AND ORGANIC EGGS?
8. Using foldable nest boxes:
You don’t need to exert much exterior control or involvement for this strategy to work. Obtaining excellent and well-crafted rollaway nest boxes will almost eliminate the amount of damaged eggs you receive. This is due to the fact that your hens will roll to a collection point as soon as they lay their eggs.
Denying them access to the egg after it has been laid.By using this automated method, you can spend less time collecting eggs.and give up cracking eggs altogether.
9. There are few or no lights around the nesting area:
Installing curtains will help to dim the light surrounding the nest if your birds are going to the nest boxes to devour the eggs. Putting in nest box curtains is one of the best ways to stop eggs from being eaten or broken. Because hens have poor vision in the dark, the curtain will drastically cut down on light, which discourages your birds from visiting that area to deposit eggs.
In addition, you have probably noticed that hens are frightened of the dark.They are therefore far less inclined to peck and consume eggs that they can hardly see.
10. Culling
If you’ve exhausted all of these options,recommendations and your birds are still not cooperating, you may decide to cull them. It’s possible that some of your obstinate hens are resistant to changing their routines, even if you’ve taken all the necessary precautions.
These obstinate birds don’t appear to want to give up their terrible behavior because they are so accustomed to it. After that, you can choose one of these birds and take it out of the flock entirely. This aids in controlling the spread and removing the persistent egg-eating birds from the flock.
In summary
Having chickens around your home or farm is a pleasure.
Additionally, keep in mind that if you raise hens for their eggs then you have to be prepared to meet their requirements in that area. For optimal survival and productivity, layers require a diet rich in protein and calcium.
Your hens may occasionally obtain them via cracked eggs and egg yolks they discover inside the nesting box.
Thus, always make sure you take the appropriate precautions in order to prevent breaking eggs near the nest.
