Chickens eat eggs what to do. Why do chickens peck eggs: effective methods of control, prevention

The chicken is the most common poultry in the world. Eggs are a storehouse of vitamins and amino acids. They are shown even for the children's menu and nursing the sick. To have such an indispensable product on the table, you need the presence of a laying hen. It doesn’t matter if it’s in huge poultry farms or in a private backyard, be sure to follow the rules for keeping poultry. Otherwise there is a risk:

lose a bird
do not wait for the eggs;
get pecked and eaten by the bird itself.

Why do chickens peck their eggs, what to do about it?

Chickens peck their eggs

Rules for caring for chickens at home

Chickens are rather unpretentious birds. Even for a beginner poultry breeder, their breeding does not threaten with large material costs. The very first and most important thing in this process is the construction of a poultry house. The choice of location must be considered special attention. It should not be flooded in the spring flood. The chicken coop itself should be spacious, bright and without drafts. There is no special need for the height of the ceilings, about 2 m is enough, but there are requirements for the floors. In no case should they be made of concrete. Such a floor will be cold almost all year round. In order not to get sick, the bird must walk on straw or sawdust bedding. Dry grass and shavings are also suitable.

For egg production of chickens, one of the main conditions is illumination. All year round it should be at least 15 hours a day. In winter, you will have to light up.

Important! The temperature in the chicken coop and the degree of humidity are also important. Laying hens love heat and do not tolerate moisture. Even in winter period it is required to keep heat within 17 ° C. And the optimum temperature for good egg production is about 24 ° C.

For air circulation in the room you need a window or extractor fan. The latter is preferable, as it does not allow excessive cooling of the house.

Chickens are known to sleep on perches. A meter perch is enough for 5 hens. The pole should be no more than 5 cm in diameter so that the bird can comfortably wrap its toes around it. The recommended perch height is from 0.5 m to 0.8 m.

Perch for chickens

For the fulfillment of the main purpose, the laying hen needs a nest. For him use the most various materials and containers. The classic option is, of course, wicker baskets. They are lightweight and eco-friendly. They have good air circulation, which means the bedding will always be dry and comfortable. But in our time, improvised materials such as cardboard, boards and even plastic boxes are increasingly being used.

Important! The size of the nest must be at least 0.4 m in diameter.

Laying hens love to dig in the ground in the summer. In this way, they grind their claws, replenish the body with bioadditives in the form of worms, and can peck small pebbles for better digestion. In addition, walking helps them not to gain excess weight. Obesity is fraught with a decrease in egg production. Therefore, it is imperative for them to organize a walking area. In warm weather, a feeder and a drinking bowl are installed there. It is optimal to make the feeder in the form of a narrow long box with a partition along the entire length (so that the bird cannot climb inside). One linear meter is enough for 5-6 chickens. A hole (45 × 45 cm) should be cut out of the poultry house for walking.

As a drinker, you can use any low capacity. Although, given the inaccuracy of the bird, it is better to build an autodrinker.

A mandatory attribute of any poultry house is a large container with sand and ash. This is both a bath and a hospital. Bathing in this mixture, the bird cleans its feathers from dead cells and insects. But this does not mean that the room does not require additional disinfection.

Balanced diet

Another key factor in good egg production is a balanced diet. Protein is the main ingredient in the bait's diet. This component is contained in the right amount in bone or fish meal. Fats will provide oats and corn. They will receive vitamins A, B and D from vegetables, grass, hay, legumes. They don't really need carbohydrates or fiber.

Laying hens need to be fed up to 4 times a day. The main meal is early in the morning, and the last one is at night.

Important! For the strength of the shell, chalk should be added to food.

Why and what to do if chickens peck their eggs

Like any other living organism, the chicken reacts to certain life situations. With a lack of lighting, it stops laying, when the temperature drops, it reduces productivity, and with a lack of certain microelements, it begins to peck at the eggs laid by itself.

To succeed, you will have to make the diet of chickens in the image of special nutrition. Here are the main components of the chicken diet:

carbohydrates: cereals (wheat, corn, rye, oats);
animal and vegetable proteins (fish, fish meal, bone meal, legumes);
minerals (chalk, crushed shell rock, salt);
vitamins (grass, vegetables, nutritional supplements).

For laying hens, protein-enhanced food is suitable. Also, the mineral content should be greater than for meat-oriented chickens. Minerals are needed by the laying hen to form the egg shell. With a lack of one or another component, the bird will begin to extract it on its own - from its egg, eating it.

Important! Never give to chickens eggshell. Subsequently, the bird will look for something similar and will find the egg itself laid in the shell.

Why chickens peck their eggs with a balanced diet are explained by the following facts:

Crowding. To prevent this from happening, you need to take care of sufficient space for each individual in advance. Optimal for layers 1 m² for 3-4 units. In close quarters, the bird behaves aggressively, fights often break out. The mental state of a bird can be expressed in any manifestation, including pecking eggs.
Lack of nests. Quiet lay requires at least one nest for 5 layers. Moreover, all of them must be decorated in the same way and securely isolated. Otherwise, all birds will choose one nest and will try to lay eggs in it at the same time. Of course, in this case, masonry crushing is not excluded. To breed birds in different nests, it is recommended to keep something similar to an egg in each of them. For example, a tennis ball. Chickens prefer a non-empty nest for laying.
Cell content. Not all breeds tolerate confined spaces. Due to the lack of space for movement, chickens sometimes arrange fights and other sabotage. This can be avoided with free range or cell designs with an egg collector.
Periodic shedding. Quite often, damage to the masonry is the annual molt of the bird, if the breed is carried all year round. In the natural environment, the bird does not lay eggs during the period of plumage change. It is laid down by nature as a defense of the body. With hybrids, the situation is different. They are bred specifically for productivity.
During molting, microelements and vitamins should be added to food in a larger volume. It is good to introduce a small amount of fish oil. This tool should solve the problem.

But, if the cases of wrecking have not ceased, it is necessary to look for the cause in the bad inclinations of some individuals. It happens that a few hens, recognizing the taste of fresh eggs, for no reason continue to do so in the future and set a bad example for the rest of the herd. Violators should be immediately found and isolated. Sometimes it is possible to wean them from eating eggs, but more often they are allowed to eat meat.

For re-education, you can try:

put a snag in the nest, for example, a tennis ball;
put an egg stuffed with mustard;
ensure complete darkness in the nesting place, as chickens are blind in the twilight and may not notice the egg;
and a completely wild way - beak trimming.

Preventive measures

In order not to get into trouble in the form of pecking masonry, it is worth taking preventive measures. This, of course, primarily concerns nutrition. The role and organization of the condition of maintenance is great. It is also important to monitor the behavior of the herd (or individual specimens).

Walks in the yard

Experienced poultry farmers give such advice:

Let the chickens roam freely in the yard whenever possible. In the warm season, the sowing of the walking area with cereals or just different grass is welcome. Part of the necessary vitamins will definitely get into the body of the laying hen.
Feed special feed for poultry. All the rules are there.
At self-manufacturing Mixers should add vitamins and minerals that are produced specifically for laying hens (rex vital, ryabushka, ryaba chicken).
Dry green grass in granules for the winter (grind and dry). Such greens retain most of the necessary components.
Feed germinated grain regularly. Cereal sprouts contain many useful trace elements. As food, such grain is much more nutritious.
Avoid laying eggs outside the nest. An orphan egg can break, and chickens will definitely taste it. And they will like it.

Why does a chicken eat chicken

Among turkeys, chickens, cannibalism is not uncommon. Moreover, the bird that smelled the taste of blood can no longer be stopped. Everything can begin quite harmlessly - with pulling out feathers. Perhaps this will all stop. But, if a weaker chicken was attacked, then it can come (and often comes) not only to murder, but to completely eat the unfortunate skeleton. Of course, not one attacker will peck. The whole herd will join her frantically.

It all starts from the softest place - the cloaca. Final goal attackers - the insides of a slaughtered bird. For some reason, they especially attract villains. If this happened to the chicken family, the problem must be solved immediately. Having smelled the taste of blood and meat, chickens will seek to repeat the attack. Only such birds will become more and more every time.

It is impossible not to notice the death. Firstly, there is a corpse (or already a skeleton) available, and secondly, the beaks of cannibals will be covered in feathers and blood. This is if the chickens are in a private courtyard. There are big difficulties with this at the poultry farm, so there is mainly cellular content.

On a note! Mature chickens are more susceptible to cannibalism. And it starts completely out of nowhere, suddenly. Among chickens, this behavior is very rare at 4-6 days of age and at 2-3 months. The latter is associated with the puberty of cockerels, as hormones play in them. Shedding is also a risk factor.

breeders poultry see the problem in overcrowding. The inability to move, eat and drink calmly causes real stress for laying hens. It accumulates and then manifests itself in some form. From this, the bird can get sick, die, or go crazy. The latter can just spill out as aggression towards relatives. The situation can get out of control, especially when newcomers appear in the herd.

Important! In an effort to get more production, some breeders lengthen daylight hours more than necessary. Chickens, like any other living organisms, need a night's rest in complete darkness. This phenomenon can also cause stress and explain the aggressive behavior of the laying hen.

Chickens are very curious birds. Sometimes, it happens, they come up and just poke at their feet. Maybe this curiosity pushes them to try to find out what is inside the egg she laid? Probably, and this is possible. But, nevertheless, the nature of the chicken laid the instinct to preserve the masonry. The mother hen considers them future chicks. But this is in nature, where they look for and find all the elements necessary for health. And in a closed chicken coop, the herd is entirely dependent on the owner. And the bird has to find the lack of some elements on its own. In such conditions, it is not necessary to ask why chickens eat their eggs, how to wean them. This is where the pecking and eating of eggs comes from. In order to avoid spoilage of products, it is worth taking a closer look at the behavior of pets and feeding them with balanced mixtures.

The human body needs the consumption of chicken eggs. They contain all essential amino acids Therefore, it is recommended to consume them several times a day. A main task when breeding chickens is to get as much of this valuable product as possible.

Despite the apparent simplicity, this is a very time-consuming process. Sometimes when breeding birds, even experienced poultry farmers fail. One such failure is the pecking of one's own eggs by birds.

Almost all poultry farmers face this problem, but people do not always know what can be done in this situation. Why chickens peck eggs and what to do about it is described below.

If the laying hen began to peck her eggs, then this indicates insufficient amount of calcium in the bird's body. Thus, the bird replenishes its own reserves by pecking the egg shell.

You can prevent chickens from pecking eggs by introducing special feed or calcium supplements into their diet. Most often, poultry farmers add to feed lump chalk or put it in places where bird feeders are installed.

Some poultry farmers add crushed egg shells to the diet, introducing it instead of dessert. But in this case, it is possible to provoke addiction to pecking the shell and thereby provoke unnecessary behavior in birds.

Another reason for pecking eggs can be considered insufficient walking area birds. In some cases, with insufficiently allocated territory for walking, the birds resort to the same method of protest and begin to peck their eggs. To solve this problem, chicken owners cultivate the area adjacent to the chicken coop and plant green grass there.

The second day I find the shell in the chicken coop. I don’t understand why chickens peck eggs and how to solve this problem? I close the birds, so there is no one to hooligan besides them!

Why is this happening?

Chickens can peck their own eggs in both winter and summer for the same reasons:

deficiency of calcium and vitamin D;
a small amount of protein in the feed;
incorrect lighting;
a small walking yard;
improper content in the chicken coop.

What to do?

Let's take a closer look at what can be done if chickens peck their eggs?

Fixing nutrition

The shell contains calcium and vitamin D. Chickens begin to peck at it, because these substances are not enough in the feed. Therefore, it is necessary to increase their volumes in food, for this:

Add clean and ground egg shells, crushed chalk to the feed.
Give the birds ground or finely broken shell rock.
If chickens peck eggs, be sure to add protein feed to them. Boil fish no more than 2 times a week so as not to plant buds and spoil the taste of eggs. Better simple river, capelin or herring. Do not forget about fish, meat and meat and bone meal.
In addition to seafood, protein is found in milk and dairy products. Therefore, we include in the diet: whey, reverse, buttermilk, if possible - cottage cheese.
Add mutton, beef or pork fat to the diet - for 25 heads, 500 g per week.
In the chicken coop we have a small amount of sand, fine gravel.

Use high quality compound feed intended for chickens. Do not feed the bird the same way.

Improving content

Chickens can peck eggs due to improper maintenance. Check in the chicken coop:

lighting - should be muffled and not hit the bird in the eyes; in winter it is good to install an ultraviolet lamp in the chicken coop;
the distance of nests and boxes from each other - if the hens sit too closely, they will definitely look to the neighbor and spoil her egg;
a place for a chicken in the nest - make it soft and comfortable so that after laying the egg it does not break or the chicken does not crush it with its feet;

You can make a special tray, along which the egg from the nest will carefully leave and not introduce the chicken into “temptation”. To avoid aggressiveness and pecking, chickens should have enough space in the walking yard.

We identify and wean "biters"

If a chicken once pecks at its own or someone else's shell, it becomes difficult to wean it from such a habit. But there are proven "folk methods" that help a lot.

Put a wooden or stone white dummy in the nest. Tired of pecking him with his beak, the chicken will wean from bad habit. The same "kruglyash" can be made from flour and very salty water, dry well before laying out.
Put tennis balls in the nest for the same purpose.
Fake a natural product by changing the filling:
- make a small hole in the egg, remove the contents and pour liquid soap, plug the hole. If pecking continues, move on to the next option;
- Pour in the pepper, mustard and vinegar mixture. After such a “talker”, the chicken definitely no longer wants to peck eggs;
- to identify the pest, add food coloring to the mixture.
Hold the identified biters for several days in isolation from the rest of the flock and feed them intensively. If they fix it, return it to “society”, if not, you will have to use it in soup, otherwise all chickens will become infected with a bad habit.

Homemade eggs are valued higher than store-bought eggs for their cleaner and healthier product. The visual difference between such products is usually determined by the color of the yolk. In a domestic egg, it is pronounced and has a rich orange color, but the shop egg is pale in color and, importantly, there is a big difference in taste. The bird is bred precisely to obtain tasty products, but sometimes there are not pleasant surprises during the collection of eggs. Suddenly discovering a pecked egg, you need to find the cause of this disgrace.

Why do chickens eat their eggs

Reasons for pecking your own product by birds

Previously, peasants explained such a sign as damage to eggs by the fact that the bird was offended by the owner for poor care and feeding and now repays the same. As well as one of the reasons, there may be a limited range of walking and a lack of vegetation on it.

Insufficient amount of calcium in the body of an individual. This can be at least the main reason, so you should take care of adding such an important component to the diet. The shell itself, upon examination, will be thin and fragile, and this additionally indicates a lack of calcium.
Poor, low-quality or often spoiled food. A large number of pre-prepared mash is not quickly fed to the household and often leads to acidification of products. Wet grain, respectively, also has the ability to deteriorate. Further use of the missing food is unacceptable for feeding individuals.

The reason that chickens peck eggs may be a lack of calcium in the bird's body.

If by chance it happened that the egg broke, then the bird, being an omnivore, will immediately begin to examine it with curiosity and try to eat it. If you like the taste of the product, it will certainly serve as a further action, like searching for yummy and eating it, besides, it will serve as an example for the rest.

The location of the nests is very close to each other. In the flea market, a laying hen could simply accidentally step on her or a neighbor's egg, but, as a rule, such cases are rare.

Isolation of hens to avoid pecking eggs

The harmful nature of the bird can also cause aggressive behavior towards masonry and other individuals. Due to its harmfulness, it will specifically crush the eggs more than from a lack of something in the body.

Important! Some of the breeds are too aggressive and only decision this will be the debeaking of the beak, that is, cutting with wire cutters or a special tool.

Debeaking of birds. Download file

Bird debeaking

Many housewives, without knowing it, provoke her to peck their products. First, the shells are collected and then given along with food and food waste, and the bird quickly gets used to the taste and smell of food, and without it, it will look for a familiar food option on its own. You can give, but first you should wash the shells and dry them, thereby ridding them of the characteristic smell, and only then grind and mix in food.

Problem Calculation

It is difficult to calculate the pest, but with a certain observation it is possible. She will give out her constant or frequent presence in the chicken coop near the nests, she will wait there for a treat. It should be separated from the others and try to wean it for about two weeks using several methods. It is especially worth taking such measures if it gave a lot of products, then it is not worth immediately solving the problem by destroying it. Such individuals, if they cannot eventually correct themselves and again take up the old, then they will urgently go for meat in a short time, otherwise others will behave in the same way. As a rule, a bad example is contagious.

How to find out which chicken pecks eggs

Problem Solving Methods

Blende in the form of medium-sized plastic balls. They are laid in places of masonry, but at the same time they are intensively fed with minerals, calcium and other many useful feeds.
Imitation of a dough product. Dissolve a lot of salt in warm water and mix salted water with flour until a tight consistency. Next, we create an image of pied products from the dough and dry it thoroughly. As a result, we get a dry, hard oval that is very unpleasant in taste and put our creation in the nest. A futile attempt to try a treat will become impossible and thereby lose interest in this activity.
Make a dummy, but here you have to be careful and spend some time on its manufacture. Make a natural product from the settling side and blunt through the hole and blow out the contents, or remove the filling from the hole on one side with a syringe. The purpose of the experiment is a natural look with a false filling. The filling can be in the form of vinegar and fill it in the same way with a syringe with a needle or hot pepper diluted with water. Next, with a small piece of plasticine or other improvised means, we overwrite the holes made so that everything does not leak out ahead of time.

As before, and to this day, many, as far as possible, give slaughterhouse residues and waste for food, that is, everything that is no longer needed after the slaughter of large animals. Also, sometimes you can add fat to food about a pound for two dozen individuals.

Chicken diet. The need for fat

Another option is the operational collection of products, and if they are, the remains of the products. Of course, constant patrolling will be impossible, but if time permits, you can try. Do not forget about the usefulness of shellfish and fine gravel in the diet.

Video - An effective way to wean chickens from pecking eggs

Effective problem solving

If the attempt to figure out the bully was not successful, do not be discouraged. Lay out the chalk circles in the walking area or in the room in three pieces, they will attract the attention of individuals and thereby replenish their supply of necessary elements.

Important! Do not decompose the rounds into nests. The bird can be confused with its products if it is white.

Advice! If you have powdered chalk, mix it with a little water and make lumps yourself.

With some effort, you can build a tricky nest yourself. The trick lies in its equipment with a chute and a reservoir for collecting products.

An interesting way to protect chicken eggs from chickens

Another way to re-equip the nest consists in its slope and a hole in the middle of the nest, and then a hidden chute with a smooth slope and containers for assembling products. Of course, in this case, it will be necessary to convert all available places for laying products, which greatly complicates the task.

It is also worth reconsidering the location of existing nests and the lighting of the room. Of course, it should be taken into account that bright white light directly affects the productivity of individuals and should not be completely ruled out. At the same time, an overabundance of such lighting leads to aggressive behavior. You can reduce the illumination by replacing the paws, if this is not possible, artificially obscure the side of the nests. If a visible sign is still a lack of nutrients, then you need to install a UV lamp, especially in the winter season.

The right diet for chickens

Proper diet for laying hens

In case of an acute lack of protein or other substances, it is necessary to provide the bird with good nutrition with the addition of protein at the rate of 5 grams per individual in the form of bone or fish meal. Not unimportant will be the introduction of cottage cheese, hay or root crops with cabbage leaves. It is worth taking a closer look at the finished composition, in a specialized pharmacy for pets, as a rule, there are all the necessary components specially formulated for motley. You can also crumble and add ordinary calcium gluconate to food, if other specialized products for birds are not available. The more varied the food, the more useful in the body.

Equip your chicken feeder well

It should be borne in mind that the productivity and spoilage of products directly depends more on the owner than on the pestle. With proper care, important walking with a large area and good nutrition, such difficulties will never arise in a good household, and if they suddenly arise, then after eliminating them, it is worth reviewing some factors to prevent further problems.

Video - How to get rid of the problem: chickens crush and eat eggs

Poultry Vladimir Ravilov

2015-05-26 Source: thepoultryguide.com

Chickens have a truly bad habit - they eat their own eggs or, even worse, everything indiscriminately. Of course, egg eaters are quite rare, but if they start up, then you need to get rid of them as soon as possible, otherwise they will teach this bad occupation to others.

The habit of eating eggs begins with innocent curiosity - an accidentally broken egg looks quite appetizing and, having tasted it once, the chicken decides that it is quite tasty. In most cases, chickens start eating their own eggs, and then switch to other people's.

Egg eaters begin to brag about their success in the culinary field and very soon you have not one cannibal, but several or even a whole herd of chickens. As a result, you are left without eggs, but your chickens will look healthy and well-groomed. The fact is that raw eggs serve as a source of nutrients not only for humans, but also for birds.

To identify the devourer and wean him from eating eggs, try to practice six useful tips. By following them, you will not only identify the intruder, but you can also cook excellent chicken broth from it.

Tip number 1. Feed mustard. This is one of the safest and most common ways to wean chickens from eating eggs. Take a small nail or awl and make a hole in both ends of the egg, and then remove all the contents from it. Prepare table mustard and fill an empty egg shell with it, and then place it in a place where chickens usually lay their eggs. Chickens hate the taste of mustard, and when they peck at a fake egg, they generally give up on the idea of eating the eggs. If the first attempt fails, try repeating the method several times.

Tip number 2. Learn to work with your head. Use golf balls or something that looks like an egg to replace real eggs. After a while, your chickens will get tired of pecking at the "egg" and, if the pain in the beak or head will tell them that they are on the wrong track. The habit of pecking eggs will disappear inversely with the headache.

Golf balls in a nest with eggs

Tip #3: Feed your chickens protein. Yes, this is the easiest advice. As already mentioned, eggs are extremely nutritious - they contain a lot of protein. If your chickens are protein starved, they will eat the eggs. Try adding protein supplements and fishmeal to your diet. Some poultry farmers feed their chickens with boiled eggs, after crushing them together with the shell. Fear not, this has nothing to do with eating raw eggs.

Tip number 4. Hang "curtains". Make a darkening of the nest - the place where the chickens lay their eggs. Egg eaters will not see them in the dark, which means the eggs will remain intact.

Tip number 5. Remove excess. It is worth removing everything superfluous from the nest - straw, garbage, etc. Thus, when you try to peck at an egg, it will roll away from it. The idea is rather strange, but it is quite successful.

Tip #6: Reduce the space. If the chickens have a limited view, then they will not be able to see the eggs lying in other places. The method is similar to blackout. After a short time, the habit of eating eggs will come to naught.

If the above tips don't help, know the place of the egg eater in the pot!

By the way, you can use a complex method - it is used in poultry farms. The floor in the nest is made with a slope. As soon as the hen lays an egg, it will roll down the inclined surface in a closed box where the chicken can't get it.

How to spot an egg eater?

To identify an egg eater, you will have to check each chicken, or rather its head and beak. You can easily find a dried yolk on the beak and head feathers of the culprit.

If you can't find an egg eater from the dirt around the beak, try making a false egg. A fake egg is easy to make - you need to empty the shell from the protein and yolk, as described above, and fill it with food coloring. Then everything is simple - the egg eater will be painted in the color of the paint with which you filled the fake egg. As soon as you see this Chingachgook, immediately send it to the pan.

Prevention measures
The chicken eats the pumpkin. Source: twobarnfarm.org

Feeding your chickens a nutritious diet is the best way to prevent egg eating.
Make sure the chickens are getting enough calcium so the hard shell won't break at the wrong time.
Remove debris from nests. Do not over-contaminate bedding.
Remove eggs from nests promptly.
Don't let the chickens starve.
Create a "business atmosphere" for the chickens. Keep them busy with work: raking compost, pecking at apples or pumpkins, you can hang cabbage on a rope, etc.

Pecking and then eating eggs is, unfortunately, a common problem for many modern poultry farmers. This is one of the most common deviations in the behavior of laying hens. At the same time, it occurs in different time and with different chickens, under different conditions of detention. Why do chickens peck eggs and how to solve the problem, let's figure it out right now. At the end of the article, be sure to watch an interesting video.

Possible causes of pecking

Of all possible causes why chickens eat their eggs is the most common malnutrition. However, this is not all, there are many more reasons and sometimes many farmers do not even know about them. So, the fact that chickens peck eggs can lead to:

small area of maintenance and walking;
lack of nutrients and minerals in food, especially calcium;
the presence of shells and particles of eggs in pure form in the feed;
long light regime in winter;
lack of vitamin D in winter.

Improper feeding

This is perhaps the most common and most obvious reason for chickens to peck their eggs. The body of a bird instinctively feels that something is missing. And in the shell of the eggs are all the necessary substances. The survival instinct pushes the laying hen to replenish her stocks from what is always available. Without eliminating this reason, it will not be possible to wean the bird from pecking.

The same reason can be attributed to the factor when the owners themselves give their laying hens fresh shells of freshly broken eggs. Such a shell contains protein residues, which are very attractive to chickens. Having become accustomed to such feeding, to its smell and taste, they cannot resist eating it on their own, mistaking it for ordinary food. The shell should be given as a valuable source of calcium, but it should be well washed, crushed, dried and added to the mash. Only in this form will it bring its full benefit.

External factors

Violation of the light regime in this case affects most often. This is due to the fact that laying hens have color vision and different light affects them in different ways. The more white and bright light, the more fertility and sexual function in birds increase. However, excess leads to the opposite effect, with chickens becoming nervous and stressed. It is enough for one dirty trick to appear in the herd, as this problem matures.

Solution Methods

So, before we solve our problem, and in order to wean birds from pecking eggs, we should find out the cause. To do this, we need to secure the nest, for example, put it with an egg collector and see what led to this behavior. If it is not possible to change nests, then you will have to check the boxes every three hours and see which of the layers is promoting pecking. Sometimes it helps to simply remove the mischievous girl from the general herd.

Proper nutrition

So, if your chickens have begun to peck eggs, you need to immediately review the diet. Do they get enough protein and minerals, perhaps it is worth replacing some component? It helps to solve the problem of introducing animal feed into the diet. For example, it is good to give bone meal, fish meal, dairy products. You can feed legumes and vegetables rich in protein.

Be sure to put on the walking area, if it is not there, a separate feeder with gravel or coarse sand. Crumble chalk and shell rock into a small trough. If your chickens are willing to peck at this mixture, then we have found out the reason correctly. Often giving such substances does not change the problem, so stronger methods can be resorted to. These include pharmaceutical preparations and some medicinal herbs.

Pharmacy preparations

Special pharmacy purchased drugs help wean chickens from pecking their eggs or each other. Often, the manifestations of pecking and cannibalism are associated with the same reasons, so you can take the same drug. Such funds are not very popular, few people know about them, but in special difficult cases they help. For example, here you can include Biovetin, Methionine.

Remember that you can give any pharmacy drugs only after finding out the exact reasons for the manifestation of dysfunctional behavior. No Elimination main reason pecking, the use of the drug is ineffective.

Folk methods

Most of the owners who start pecking eggs use long-known, and most importantly, proven folk methods. For example, they include beak trimming. This procedure in the poultry industry is called debriking. It is made mandatory at all poultry farms in order to wean chickens from pulling out feathers, from pecking each other or eggs. To do this, a sharp part of the end of the beak is removed with a special tool.

At home, this part of the beak can either be filed or cut with wire cutters. It is advisable to do this for pullets in which the stratum corneum has not yet fully formed. After that, the place of the cut must be burned with hot metal, for example, an ordinary knife will do. This, although it does not help to wean from pecking eggs, but with a blunt beak, this is unlikely to succeed.

Also to folk remedies, in order to wean from the "bad" habit, one can attribute the laying of decoy eggs to chickens. It can be made from plaster or replaced with an ordinary tennis ball. The bird will try to peck the snag a couple of times and this will help to wean it from this habit. You can take an ordinary egg, pour the liquid through a small hole and pour a solution of pepper or mustard with a syringe. Such a spicy snack will definitely not be to the taste of the laying hen, so next time she will think whether she should do it or not.

Walk and light

If the diet of your chickens is correct, they are healthy in appearance, perhaps they are stressed due to poor walking. After all, a bird, by its nature, must walk all the time and look for food. Under natural conditions, chickens walk, pinching grass, walking, pecking at small pebbles and insects. Without a proper walking area, birds become aggressive and "unhappy". After a while, they compensate for their misfortune with an interesting activity - pecking eggs.

To solve the problem, you can make a walking area for laying hens, let them out for a walk in the yard, if there is no space. In addition, daylight will be favorably reflected if their light regime is disturbed. After a while, the birds will become calmer and stop spoiling food.

Eliminate the "naughty girl"

It often happens that only one hen appears in the herd, which begins to peck both its own and other people's eggs. She needs to be traced and removed from the herd. This is not difficult to do, since the naughty girl often spins near the nests, sits next to other laying hens, waiting for a fresh egg. If you notice that one chicken is looking intently into the nest, running into the chicken coop at the first “signal” of demolition - this is she and there is that very malignant. Put her in a separate room or protect her from the main herd for a while, loneliness should wean her from addiction.

Video "Prevention from pecking eggs"

What to do to wean chickens from pecking eggs, as well as when and how to give vitamin premixes - all this will be told in this video by an amateur poultry farmer.

3 methods: Create a favorable environment Pay attention to the shortcomings in the diet Break the habit

Egg eating among chickens usually starts by mistake - the hen accidentally breaks the egg and begins to study it, and finding that it is tasty and nutritious, she absorbs it. This behavior quickly spreads among the birds in the flock, and if it is not corrected, then it is difficult to stop. This article will show you how to provide your hens with a healthy environment and diet to lay strong, healthy eggs, and what you can do to quickly stop this behavior in birds before it affects the entire flock.

Method 1 Create a positive environment

In order to reduce the chance of damage to the eggs, care must be taken to ensure that the nests are not overcrowded.
For every four to five hens, you need at least one 31 x 31 cm nest.

If there are too few nests or they are very small, this will cause the hens to crush and break them, or it will stress the hens, as a result of which they will peck eggs more often. You should minimize the risk of breaking the eggs so that the hens never taste them.
- Nests should be at least 60 cm from the floor and 120 cm from the perch.
- Remove brood hens (chickens that persistently incubate their eggs to hatch) from the nest so they don't take up precious space and contribute to overcrowding in other nests.
- Consider designing the nest in such a way that the eggs will be able to roll into the tray when the hen is up, where they will be kept safe from being pecked, trampled, or broken by the hens.
Organize a place for nests in a dark and calm place.
Bright light strains and unnerves the hens, due to which they begin to peck more. Turn the nest away from the entrance to the chicken coop, away from direct sunlight and do not install bright lighting. In order to create a favorable environment, you may need to darken all hatches and windows.
- Remove anything that makes loud noises or jerky movements, as this will scare the hens. When chickens get scared and run from the nest, they can damage the eggs.
- By reducing light sources, the chicken coop can be maintained at a comfortable temperature. When it gets too hot, the chickens can get irritated and start pecking more.
Line the nest with soft egg material when the hen has just laid them.
Make sure there are several inches of clean, dry, soft material (such as straw) in each nest at all times.

If you can keep the eggs from being accidentally damaged (by hitting each other in the nest or by laying them on a hard, unlined surface), the hens will have no way of knowing what the eggs taste like.
- If the egg breaks in the nest, quickly clean the material that is lined with it.
Don't let the chickens get bored.
If the chickens are annoyed or bored, chances are they will peck, so make sure they have something to do. Hang cabbage forks for them to peck at and provide enough space for walking and exercise.
- Try to organize an area in the coop where they can run and climb or jump on various obstacles, such as stumps or tree roots. If you don't have anything like this in your yard, put your chickens on a swing or a ladder so they can climb it.
- Place a pile of hay in the chicken coop. Chickens will dig through it and try to spread the hay in an even layer.

Method 2 Pay attention to deficiencies in the diet

Provide your chickens with a balanced diet that contains at least 16% protein and plenty of vitamins and nutrients.
Look for a food that is made specifically for laying hens.

It should be rich in vegetable fats and proteins.
- Keep in mind that more protein needs to be added to the extra starch (from kitchen scraps or chaff), as starch lowers the average protein content of the diet.
Add calcium to chicken feed.
If hens are deficient in calcium, they will not be able to lay eggs with strong shells. If the shell is weak and breaks when the hen sits or steps on the egg, then the hens will eat the broken eggs. Once the hen realizes that the eggs contain proteins and fats and that the shell will provide her with the calcium she needs, she will deliberately break and eat them.

Other chickens will observe her behavior and follow suit.
- Ground pinworm shells and limestone are excellent sources of calcium for your chickens. For every 45 kg of feed add 1 kg or provide the hens with an extra tray of these supplements.
- To increase calcium intake, give chickens a cup of fresh whole milk daily for several days.
- Avoid giving chickens eggshells as a source of calcium, as they may recognize it by appearance or smell, and start eating the eggs themselves. If you still decide to give the shell, grind it into a fine powder so that the chickens cannot recognize it.
- In hot weather, you may notice that the egg shells are softer, as chickens do not absorb calcium as efficiently during this period. On warmer days, increase the amount of calcium supplements.
Make sure chickens always have enough water.
Even if their diet is balanced and rich in calcium, lack of water will cause the hens to eat eggs due to their liquid content.

Chickens need more fluids than other birds, so make sure they always have fresh, clean water to drink.
- Vitamin supplements can be added to the water to promote calcium absorption in chickens.

Method 3 Unlearn the Habit

Identify and remove as soon as possible the hen (or hens) that eat the eggs.
Chances are you won't be able to catch a hen doing this, but if you watch the flock for a few days, you should be able to identify which hen is responsible for these activities. She will show traces of dried yolk on her beak or on the side of her head, or you can catch her looking for eggs in nests to eat.
- Separate the hen from the rest and that way she won't be able to eat their eggs anymore and they won't pick up on her bad behavior. Watch other birds to see if the egg-eating has stopped.
- If the eggs continue to be eaten, then the behavior may have already spread and you need to isolate other chickens.
- Isolating a chicken can be enough of a hindrance to wean it off eating eggs.
Collect eggs as soon as possible.
Most hens lay eggs until 10 am, and the sooner you remove them, the less likely they are to beat and force the hens to eat the eggs.
- If possible, collect eggs at least twice a day or more often.
Use artificial eggs to outwit chickens.
In each nest, place a golf ball, a white-painted stone, or a souvenir egg from the pet food store. Collect the real eggs as usual, but keep the artificial ones. When the chicken begins to peck at the "egg", she will understand that it does not break and is no longer a source of food. So she can stop trying to break real eggs.
- Alternatively, you can empty a raw egg by poking a hole in the top and bottom of the egg and blowing out the contents. Then fill it with mustard and put it back in the nest. Chickens do not like mustard, and this will teach them very quickly that eggs are not tasty at all.
If you can’t wean the chicken from this behavior, use an eyecup, debick or reject it.
Unfortunately, once chickens start eating eggs, they are very difficult to wean. If you've tried every method and the chicken continues to go on the rampage of destroying the eggs, you may need to go to the extreme of debeaking (removing the sharp tip of the bird's beak with a hot blade) or killing the chicken.
- If you are not ready to go to such lengths, you can purchase special eyecups that prevent the chicken from looking directly at objects. If she can only see from the side, then it will be difficult for her to find and peck at the egg.

If chickens peck eggs, this is a serious problem that needs to be addressed as quickly as possible. This will help find out the reason why chickens peck their eggs and instructions on how to fix the problem.

Every farmer faces pecking eggs, since one of the main causes of this trouble is the behavior of poultry. If there are other chickens in the immediate vicinity of the laying hen during egg laying, then some of the harmful nature or natural tendency to vandalism will try to peck into the shell or cloaca.

Sometimes hens prone to pecking deliberately roll their eggs out of the nest in order to break them.

How to stop chickens from pecking at their eggs:

Culling of birds with such behavior.
Refurbishment of the chicken coop in accordance with the recommendations above.
Isolation of birds prone to pecking eggs, which minimizes product loss. Chickens can only damage those that they themselves will demolish.
Lining in the dummy nest.

Often the problem becomes the identification of such malicious individuals. Especially if the herd is large. In this case, it is divided into groups and each is temporarily isolated.

It will help to identify the perpetrators of pecking and examination of the beaks of birds. Often they show the remnants of the yolk.

How to wean chickens to peck eggs has long been thought about. Now there is one effective folk method.

Weaning method:

Find a bird that has pecked an egg.
They make a fake. To do this, knead a stiff dough in salted water. They form an “egg” from it and dry it naturally.
They are placed in the nest to a laying hen prone to pecking.
Within a few days, the eggs laid by the hen are removed as quickly as possible so that only a dummy remains in the nest.

You need to lay it so that the chickens do not notice.

You can do other cheats:

Release the contents from the egg and pump in a thick broth with pepper and salt with a syringe;
Use tennis ball;
Make an "egg" out of plaster.

The experience of peasants of past centuries and modern farmers suggests that in order to wean a hen from a bad habit, it is enough to hold her in a nest with a dummy for a week.

But what if the chickens peck their eggs en masse and this method does not help to cope with the problem? Here the reason lies not in the natural inclinations of chickens and their character, but in other negative factors.

Incorrect socket arrangement

The place for masonry should be spacious enough for the laying hen. She should not step on eggs that have already been laid.

Nest requirements:

The nest must be shaded. This can be done with a sloped cover, curtain at the entrance, a reflector on the lamp.
The egg-laying area should have subdued lighting.
Nests should be located at some distance from each other. Otherwise, the chickens will visit each other and peck at the neighbor's eggs.
With cellular content, the floor is made sloping and an egg collector is arranged that is inaccessible to laying hens.

Improper nutrition

Also, the answer to the question of why chickens peck their eggs lies in the improper nutrition of birds. Often in a lack of calcium and protein.

Deficiency of vitamins and minerals

Often, the owners make one mistake: they give the laying hens an unwashed shell with the remnants of the contents. This provokes the hens to peck the eggs.

An incorrect diet can be easily corrected by introducing foods that contain vitamins, minerals, proteins and fats necessary for birds. First, chickens are given meat and bone and fish meal. Buy specialized vitamin complexes.

The diet should include:

boiled vegetables;
Finely chopped fresh herbs;
Fish fat;
Dairy products.

A good way to make up for the lack of substances needed by chickens is to weekly feed the remains of the offal of slaughtered animals and birds. You can change the table different kind fat: pork, lamb, goat. Every day, birds need to be given wet mashes based on boiled and grated root crops.

With a lack of calcium in the body, the legs may weaken in the chicken. This is especially dangerous for meat breeds and crosses. These birds are of a large build and there is such a nuisance as the fall of chickens on their feet.

To eliminate the lack of calcium will help:

crushed chalk;
shell rock;
Cottage cheese;
Reverse;
Vitamin and mineral supplements.

Hunger

Chickens can begin to peck at laid eggs and from hunger. The owner needs to ensure that the birds are fed. To do this, the feeders must always be full. The best solution is to install automatic feeders and automatic drinking bowls in the poultry house, which are easy to build with your own hands from improvised means.

Lack of UV

In winter, chickens lack vitamin D, which is formed in the body under the influence of ultraviolet radiation. This increases the aggressiveness of birds, provokes vandalism and pecking of laid eggs. The lack of ultraviolet radiation occurs even with regular and long walks. This is due to the peculiarities of solar radiation in winter.

The question is solved in two ways, which are implemented simultaneously:

Installation of an ultraviolet lamp in the chicken coop.
Introduction to the diet of foods rich in vitamin D.

Chickens are given fish oil and fishmeal. These products contain everything you need to eliminate the lack of ultraviolet radiation in the cold season.

Idleness and fear

If the herd has a too aggressive rooster, the hens hide from it in the nests. And waiting for time, they begin to peck at the eggs.

They will like the taste, and soon food spoilage will become a habit and a necessity. The issue can be resolved by replacing the rooster or its periodic isolation.

So that the chickens do not mess around, they can put containers with rubbish and soil. They will dig into it and do something interesting for them.

Ways to solve the problem

There are classic ways to fix the situation:

It is necessary to take eggs from the nests as soon as possible. It is advisable to do this at least twice a day. If an egg is accidentally broken, the entire shell and contents are carefully collected.
To reduce the aggressiveness of chickens, red lamps are hung in the house or the artificial light sources used are painted in this color. This is an effective method of reducing the aggressiveness of chickens.
Daylight duration. It is increased to increase the productivity of the herd. But an excess of light is also harmful to chickens and can provoke vandalism and pecking.
In large poultry farms, chickens often cut their beaks. It becomes dull and difficult for them to peck at the egg. You can shorten the beak yourself with the help of wire cutters and a file. After the procedure, the cut site must be cauterized.

An attentive owner will always identify the cause of the deviation in the behavior of chickens and eliminate it. If no methods help to wean chickens from pecking eggs, they get rid of such laying hens and start new ones.