roll away nest boxes......

o.k so i caught a sneaky pullet snacking on one of my eggs this morning, then another gal after in the afternoon again eating a egg...they have oyster shell and they get all my table scraps...including meat...they are not lacking anything in their diet so...
i need some plans for roll away nest boxes if anyone has a good site or something with some that be greatly appreciated!
cheers!

problem ive had with roll away boxes... my hens need/like nesting material. They wont lay in a box thats wire on the bottom, and if you put any kind of nesting material in a roll away nest, it defeats the purpose as the eggs no longer roll.

My cure for egg eaters was i blew out a bunch of eggs, and took a syringe and filled them back up with hot sauce mixed with dijon mustanrd and cayenne pepper. I left those eggs in the boxes ALL the time for about a week, and picked the other eggs a few times a day for that week. havnt had a problem since lol

The only problems I have ever had with chickens eating the eggs is caused by one of two things. The birds where either out of water or an egg had broken and then they would eat it to clean it up. Its an instinct thing! And when that happens, they will only eat the broken one!
There are wives tails of how you shouldn't feed the shell back to the hens because that will cause egg eating..., well that is a bid bunch of BS!!! I always feed the egg shells back to the chickens. So NO, that doesn't cause it!!!
Janet, you had mentioned that your birds love the same nest box. I too have had that issue before and it usually ends up with eggs being broken. Another thought maybe is these birds are being picked on by some others and don't leave the next box too often.
I once had a little old Silky that lived an entire winter in a nest box. She guarded it with her life too! She wouldn't let any other hens into it! I guess she figured it was too cold to venture out of it as I only keep my coops around the +1 - +5 mark in the winter. I also had a very aggressive Orpington rooster at the time who would jump anything that moved!!! On second thought, maybe thats why she didn't leave the nest box?! LOL!
Anyways, have a look at what is going on in the coop and I'm sure you will figure out why the eggs are getting broken!

One day recently I ran the birds out of food, and in my unorganized way had palnned to go that day and buy some, which I did. On returning I found a little hen that had recently come in to laying eating her own egg in the nest box, and other hens where eagerly pecking at the ones I was trying to gather. Furthermore, the only roo left in the coop that day was our tiny Black-tailed japanese and the hens pecked his head until it went from solid white to solid red. The hens were locked up that day, when normally they would be out free ranging. I did not realize how crazed they would get if left without food for a few hours.

dwd... no they had water and food both full... i am thinking the eggs was cracked by them over crowding their fav nest box..so the one decided to eat it...but then later on in the afternoon i noticed 2 eggs one had a peck hole in it and the other was being devoured by another hen they may be cracking from them all huddling in one box but i need my eggs so i think i am gonna try to get the roll aways ... and no i have observed the girls, no one is being picked on, the one this morning, i kicked her out of the nest when i noticed her devouring the egg and she franticaly ran around and jumped back in the nest looking for more.... they were going mad for the eggs...they kept wanting more, trying to get back to the nest...
i give them protien they had old yogurt with oatmeal mixed in the night proir and steak bones to pick on they love it...i dunno i am guessing a stupid habbit now????
thanks for all the advice, i may try the dummy egg with hot sauce tomorrow

Well, this is probably not a story to share but.... when that little hen of mine was eating an egg in the nest I got her out etc,,, then I noticed she was zooming in on a good egg that I had set on the floor. Peck, peck. I thought , Oh no you don't, and the next she tried, she recieved a swift flick from the end of my finger. She paused, went in again, recieved another flick, and so on maybe 5 or 6 times. Eventually she realized eggs weren't worth it and walked away. That is my version of clicker training.

Put some golf balls in your nest boxes. They learn quickly not to peck at "round" objects.

I've had to deal with this problem in the past even to the point of culling a flock of 18 hens. This group was raised with CGs one year where there was always food in the feeder. Once the CGs were gone they demanded constant food and started eating eggs when there was no food available continuously. Having adequate litter in the nesting boxes is important because it prevents eggs from being broken. I gather eggs here several times each day.

Someone said somewhere they might be lacking salt?

I use those naphthalene eggs - they smell like moth balls and are supposed to keep the mites/lice away. They seem to cure the hens from eating eggs too - when they peck at those eggs they just hurt their beaks.

I am sure this is much bigger then you need. Maybe you can reduce the number of boxes, but still use the plans?

http://www.cps.gov.on.ca/english/plans/E5000/5015/5015l.pdf

Also, when mine are needing calcium they do that.

A dozen wood or ceramic eggs are good to have around. Teaches pullets where to lay if they are dumb and can teach them that endless pecking won't work. They are also helpful if you want to get a broody hen.

Piet

I have golf balls in there,, they seem to know the difference LOL only 1 got ate today, I changed the bedding I put straw instead of shavings in maybe that will help...