Broken Egg

[Twinkle]

Yes - I agree with what Snadger said...
I have 2 nestboxes for 7 girls - Mrs Doyle with the poorly leg has taken to lying in one of them to rest her leg, but IT's THE FAVOURITE ONE !!! so she gets unceremoniously shoved out when the rest of them want to lay.....

[dozey1]

Try giving them sun flowers seeds theya re very in protein and my girls love. Mine also lay in the same nesting box even though there is another one.

[OverWyreGrower]

Theoretically and going by the book this would work, but for at least five small points:-

1. Hens don't DO theory
2. They don't read books
3. Most of them are 'one sausage short of a full breakfast'
4. They have favourite nestboxes
5. They would rather lay their egg on top of a mountain of eggs rather than use the nice clean (empty) nestbox next door!

Oh yes, I know, but I live in hope!

Seeing all 7 of them trying to cram into 1 nest box is funny, but I end up shoving my hand in and trying to extricate eggs that have already been laid!

I'm hoping that at least they'll spread out a little bit with the new system!

[minskey]

Hi peeps,

found another one by the door this morning not squashed but a hole , I've kept it to fill up with mustard. I'm sure its one of the new girls as it never happened before they arrived. I'm off to buy some feed so I'll ask about calcium flour even though they have a dish of oyster shell and grit in the run.

[Twinkle]

someone once told me to use grated up cuttlefish from a petshop for calcium - I bought a bit and just grated it on the bobbly side of the cheese grater - seemed to work fine and was really cheap...

[minskey]

Hi Twinkle, that sounds like a good idea, does it smell fishy [sorry stoopid question I know but that smell makes me puke!!!]

[Scottishnewbie]

I bought some ceramic type eggs from the local feed store and put them in their laying box. I'm sure they tried to peck them but of course were't able to break them. That seems to have stopped them better than anything else for some reason. (The mustard trick didn't work for our girls). The place we buy our hens from told us that once they'd started eating their eggs nothing can stop them!! They humanely dispatch them once this happens apparently! How awful is that?