i now know what your talking about

Hi My auracana just laid an egg. She has laid a total of 4 eggs now. She has been in with the rooster since I got them. I broke the egg and didn't see any spot of any kind so I picked the yolk up and rolled it around in my hand and found the spot that looked donut like. It was larger that the usual white spot and was dark in the middle so I have just seen my first fertile egg. I think. I have never checked before. Since I had it rolling around in my hand it isn't that appetizing so the dogs will eat it and I will start to save her eggs how ever slowly they come. My orp pullets are by themselves and are laying eggs all over the floor. I picked three and put them in a large milk crate hoping they wuld get the hint. Well 2 eggs disappeared. sigh... dam birds. So now I am on egg watch hoping I can collect them before anybody eats any more.
I also found a small silkie egg on the floor (rolled out of their cage) so the 2 Henny girls are starting to lay as well. Henny lays a good sized egg for such a small bird so I know the egg isn't hers. I hope I can find her a partridge rooster soon. Thats my egg report for today. I know it nothing compared to many of your eggsperiences but its a start.
Geri

You are one hard person to call lol. I tried last night for about an hour. Maybe will get hold of you tonight. Glad you now know what you are looking for.

foal0069 wrote:You are one hard person to call lol. I tried last night for about an hour. Maybe will get hold of you tonight. Glad you now know what you are looking for.

I am on dial up so when I am online the phones busy. I was also talking to a freind who lost 6 puppies out of a litter of 11 . I will call you tonight.I have a few calls to make.
Geri

Whoo Hoo Went out and collected 3 orpington eggs in the same corner of the pen. Take that birds

I also ave a couple egg eating hens now, both banties. I'm picking up golf balls next time I'm in the city.

Sweetened wrote:I also ave a couple egg eating hens now, both banties. I'm picking up golf balls next time I'm in the city.

Instead of golf balls do you think those colored plastic easter eggs will do ? They only cost a dollar and we sell them at work so I thought I might try them . Has anybody used them before?
Thanks Geri

we use the plastic easter eggs, the only problem is when they break apart, but they are cheap. we have also used the little plastic shells the prizes come in in kinder chocolate eggs.

bckev wrote:we use the plastic easter eggs, the only problem is when they break apart, but they are cheap. we have also used the little plastic shells the prizes come in in kinder chocolate eggs.

oooo I have lots of those empty Kinder eggs. I'll ttry them but get some easter eggs as well the price is right.

Good luck, the only way I have found to solve it is to get rid of them. They will teach the others eventually. The golf balls only stop them from eating golf balls. Sometimes shaking it up a bit and moving them to a new pen, with the golf balls will stop them for a while, and free ranging helps, but once they have the skill they will always use it.

I wish you all the luck with it, I hope what you try works. I have only ever had 2 of them and nothing worked for me except the final straw.

coopslave wrote:Good luck, the only way I have found to solve it is to get rid of them. They will teach the others eventually. The golf balls only stop them from eating golf balls. Sometimes shaking it up a bit and moving them to a new pen, with the golf balls will stop them for a while, and free ranging helps, but once they have the skill they will always use it.

I wish you all the luck with it, I hope what you try works. I have only ever had 2 of them and nothing worked for me except the final straw.

I'm prepared to have to cull them. The unfortunate thing is one of them is my banty I call 'Big Mama', who broods for me all the time. However, I suppose she won't go broody anymore since she'll just eat the eggs.

Do they do this over a deficiancy or can it happen because they find one broken and go from there? I have a hen (dont know which one) that lays some of her eggs while roosting. Typically, they fall and hit something on the way down.

Do they do this over a deficiency or can it happen because they find one broken and go from there?

I don't really know the answer to that, but I have my thoughts on it. Both of mine began when they were coming out of a molt so I think it may be associated to a lack of protein, but that is just conjecture really. I have to say I always feed broken eggs to my birds. Really dirty ones I just smash right there and everyone gets a treat. I am not sure what makes them figure out how to break the eggs themselves.

I thought I had a few this time. It took a long time to figure out exactly who it was. As luck would have it I was there to see it actually happen. BCM hen was lurking as one was laying, others where watching BCM. As soon as a hen left the nest, BCM went right in and peck, peck, peck, crack! A few others raced for the treat as well. Like I say, I thought for sure I had others, but when the BCM was gone, it all stopped. The others had not bridged the gap on how to open the egg, just enjoyed the spoils! Thank Gordon for that.

I have eggs laid on the ground now every once in a while and never one broken and eaten. Was only the one hen that figured it out.
Good luck with the egg eater, it is not fun and can be very frustrating.