How to prevent chickens from eating their own eggs
We have looked at some of the reasons that may lead to chickens eating their own eggs.
Let us now look at how you can be able to stop them:
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1. Provide them with enough space:
If the chickens are unable to free range, provide them with enough space within their house. The recommended space is four square feet per bird.
If you can go beyond that, the better. Just make sure that it is not below four square feet per birds.
This will ensure that the birds are not overcrowded and that each and every bird gets the privacy it deserves while laying.
2. Enough Feeder and water for the chicken:
There should be enough feed and water for the chicken, whether laying or not. The feed for the laying stock needs to rich in nutrients such as Vitamin D, Magnesium and Phosphorous.
The vitamins plus the calcium and protein ensure that the eggs produced have strong shells that won’t break on landing.
Also, a well-fed chicken will not have the thought of pecking its own egg.
3. Beak trimming :
Growing up, I used to see people trimming the beaks of hens that had the habit of eating their own egg. It may look traditional but it is one of the best ways of stopping chickens from eating their own eggs.
Here is what trimming beaks do. It makes the beak to be so blunt that the chicken will not be able to peck the eggs.
While trimming the beaks of egg eating chicken, care must be taken. Do not go too deep as it may injure the chicken and cause a lot of pain.
4. Quarantine:
If all the above methods fail to work, try isolating the egg eating birds from the rest. This will help stop the spread of the habit among the other birds.
After isolating them, continue practicing the above measures until they stop eating their own eggs.
5.Make sure all hens have a spacious nesting box that’s dark and private.
Usually, it’s good to have one box per 4 hens as they don’t all lay at the same time.
6.Collect eggs multiple times a day - to get your hands on them before the hens do.
7.Make sure your feed contains enough protein and calcium to satisfy the chickens requirements (shell grit is a great source to add to their feed).
8.Replace the eggs with ‘decoys’ - put golf balls, wooden eggs, plastic eggs or other objects into the nesting boxes so they can peck at something else.
9.Worst case scenario, you might have to separate the naughty chicken from the rest of the flock until all your other feathered friends have finished laying their eggs.
10.One of the best things you can do to prevent your chickens from indulging in egg-eating is to ensure they have a spacious chicken house to run around in.
✓Over to you
Fresh eggs taste so good to chicken. So, you can’t actually blame them for eating their own eggs. What you need to do is to stop egg eating habits on your farm.
For the chicken that are in their early stages of eating their own eggs, use the above measures to control the habit.
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Poultry