Chicken Nesting

[kenmac]

I am having a bad time with them eating the eggs. Yes I have calcium in the pen in a separate feeder of crushed shells and I mix crushed shells in the feed. They really don't eat the shells, but crack them and peck up the yolk. The colder it is outside the worse this is. I think I may try to close up the openings a bit as they are about 1 foot square. Maybe make them a 10inch circle.

I have heard egg eating is difficult to stop. They talk about it on the backyard chicken forum .
I have never had that problem with mine though

 

[ning]

I have heard egg eating is difficult to stop. They talk about it on the backyard chicken forum .
I have never had that problem with mine though

I've occasionally found eaten eggs in my hen boxes, but it's pretty obvious that rats had gotten in there and were the culprits (stuff from the compost pile in there too; hens don't bring stuff into the house for the most part!).

 

[Stancoll]

I am having a bad time with them eating the eggs. Yes I have calcium in the pen in a separate feeder of crushed shells and I mix crushed shells in the feed. They really don't eat the shells, but crack them and peck up the yolk. The colder it is outside the worse this is. I think I may try to close up the openings a bit as they are about 1 foot square. Maybe make them a 10inch circle.

I'm just curious. Does your pen area offer a scratching or dusting area or are they limited to one coop area? I know chickens are grain eaters but I've also seen them (it looks like) pecking and eating grass. I wonder if they are missing some kind of nutrient, not a clue what.

 

[Clint S]

They are limited to the coop and they scratch and pick there. Chickens are omnivores and will eat most anything. Mine gets any table scraps I feel are edible which includes chicken carcasses and beef and pork bones that are left over after cooking. They will pick a carcass clean. Any and all veggies and fruits. I will even buy them a head of cabbage or lettuce. I also give them pumpkins and squash that I save in the basement for them.

I have added curtains to the nests and no broken eggs over the weekend so we will see if that works. I will modify my boxes to roll away style this summer if need be

 

[Clint S]

They are limited to the coop and they scratch and pick there. Chickens are omnivores and will eat most anything. Mine gets any table scraps I feel are edible which includes chicken carcasses and beef and pork bones that are left over after cooking. They will pick a carcass clean. Any and all veggies and fruits. I will even buy them a head of cabbage or lettuce. I also give them pumpkins and squash that I save in the basement for them.

I have added curtains to the nests and no broken eggs over the weekend so we will see if that works. I will modify my boxes to roll away style this summer if need be

I will also add that in the summer I let them out and it is less of an issue. They can not/ will not go out in the snow

 

[EddieWalker]

Built a new coop for my chickens with outside accessible nest boxes. The chickens would just scratch the straw out of the boxes and nest on the floor of the coop. Now I purchased two ceramic eggs from TSC and redid two of the nesting boxes with a ceramic egg in each today. Yes I was shocked that TSC actually had them in stock. So far they have not scratched out the nest. Time will tell ifn it works. Anyone had this problem before or try this remedy?

Is there a lip in the front of the nesting box? What are the dimensions of the nesting box?



This is one of mine. Each nesting box is 12x12. The lip in front is 2 inches. We fill them with either hay, or even better, pine shavings. Most of our chickens are not broody, so they go into the box, lay their egg, and leave it. Our broody hens will sit on them. If we let a broody hen sit long enough, she could end up with 2 dozen eggs or more in a couple days from all of the other hens getting in there with her, dropping their egg, and leaving. In about a month, we will start letting them sit until they hatch, and then pull the chicks. Last year we hatched 110 this way.

We do have a few that refuse to lay eggs in the boxes. They find a favorite place that use over and over again. By the time we find that secret location, there could be a dozen eggs there, or more. We take the eggs and feed them to the fish in the pond. Then move stuff around to make that spot less desirable for them to lay their eggs there. Most of the time it's on a shelf in our lean to storage area. Some times we just find a random egg in the middle of the driveway.

On average, we are getting two dozen eggs a day. We feed our dogs a dozen every day.

 

[Stancoll]

I will also add that in the summer I let them out and it is less of an issue. They can not/ will not go out in the snow

LOL. It's cabin fever or in this case coop fever.

 

[Clint S]

Well since adding the curtains I have gotten mere eggs in the last 2 days than I have got in 2 weeks. The warm up helped too , but no broke eggs.

 

[Alan W.]

Mine hate snow also. I finally made it out to try the threshold on a nest box. Tomorrow will tell. Curtains will be next attempt ifn this fails. The only time I have ever had them eat eggs was if one laid a softshell that cracked. They would eat the damaged one and leave the others alone.

 

[Alan W.]

Had two use the new nest with the threshold, so Im callin it a win. Just gotta convince the other 6.