The Poultry Keeper

Christine · Joined: 29 Mar 2008 Posts: 64 Location: somerset

Just come home from shopping to find my fayoumi plastered round the beak and head with fresh egg yolk and egg shell.

No way are they hungry, and they have a super diet.

Why does she do this? It must be her third or fourth by now, none of the others do it. (That I'm aware of).

Itsybitsy · Joined: 11 Feb 2006 Posts: 1327 Location: Leicestershire

Several questions here - is she broody, therefore was it an egg she was sitting on?

Was it an egg laid by somebody else?

Or herself?

All chickens will eat the contents of the egg if it has broken, they gobble up the yolk, mess around with the white and eat the shell.

It's nothing to do with poor diet, being hungry or anything like that.

The main thing you have to establish is did she deliberately break it to eat it. Sometimes one of the layers will lay one with a poor shell and it gets broken accidentally in the nest, then it will get eaten. Eggs with poor shells just sometimes happen. Layers pellets have calcium in, you can see they get oyster shell too, but it does happen. . . and may go on for several weeks. If that is happening, it may be her egg, then you will just have to wait for the shell to improve, or provide a roll away nest box so the egg rolls away before she has time to do anything about it. If she has deliberately broken it then again the roll away will do the trick.

Itsybitsy

Christine · Joined: 29 Mar 2008 Posts: 64 Location: somerset

Itsy, thank you, I'm pretty sure it was one of her eggs as the others have all laid (and had been removed) and I can recognise each hens eggs (only having 5 laying at the moment).

Having a look aroung the nesting area there are signs of dried yolk amongst the straw, and as I was only out for about 40 mins, and she normally takes a good 30 mins to lay, I'd hazard a good guess it was her that laid then ate it.

All her eggs have had good shells so far,they eat layers, and have grit and oyster shell.

I don't think she broke it accidentally, there is usually a mad dash for the water as soon as she
has laid, and shes normally straight out.

A broody fayoumi, oh dear, they make one heck of a noise when laying now, and with their attitude, could be very eventfull.

Will keep an eye on her and see if a pattern emerges.

Just out of curiosity, I realise the daylight hours are increasing, but my hens have been laying anything up to 11.00 at night! by that time I like to make sure they're all settled and safely snugged up for the night. (And I like to be too at that time).

debcat · Posted: Sat May 10, 2008 4:35 pm Post subject:

mine are laying later and later as well Confused

Lucy did the last collection at 8 pm last night, when I went to shut them up at 10.30pm there were 2 more eggs

le gallois · Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 4:09 pm Post subject:

if you have a chicken who eats eggs,blow an egg and fill with mustard.Works nearly every time

kated · Joined: 01 Nov 2006 Posts: 1744 Location: norfolk

Now I've tried that and it didn't work. I wondered if it was because (I have since learnt) that chickens and all birds can't taste hot as in chilli peppers. I think it's better to use the carrot than the stick in this case and increase the protein in the diet using cat food or some such. There are, however, some chickens which just never get out of the habit and those are better culled as they will teach all the rest.

Itsybitsy · Joined: 11 Feb 2006 Posts: 1327 Location: Leicestershire

No I agree - the mustard egg doesn't work, chickens forget anyway so tomorrow they will have forgotten. The reason I asked so many questions is because last year I regularly had an egg eaten, occasionally I found bits of shell and it was fragile, I also sometimes found the uneaten egg and the shell was very fragile - sometimes it was a struggle to pick it up. . . . but mine have all got the usual calcium grit etc. and it was the only one, so a blip in the life of an egg layer. . . . .

When a chicken lays an egg it often drops it from the standing position, a fragile shell will then of course break which invites the chicken to eat the contents, but it doesn't mean that she deliberately broke the egg, do you see what I am getting at?

Darken your nest boxes and put in plenty of soft bedding, wood shavings are good, and try and find the remains of shell and see how easily it breaks by poking your finger nail into it.

This year that same chicken of mine is laying good shelled eggs and they are not getting broken and eaten.

Also you could try leaving a different egg (with a good hard shell) in the box and see what happens to that.

Itsybitsy

milkmaid · Joined: 19 Apr 2005 Posts: 6968 Location: isle of lewis

my cousin and i were talking about this 2 weeks ago
he's darkened the nest box and put a china egg in problem is now cured Wink

although if it's soft shelled you'll just find a gunky mess in the nest box