Egg Eating Criminal Witches!!

[baymule]

#%$%$^$%@$#$%&&#@@$^ stupid chickens!! Cannibals! I run to the coop when I hear the egg song, only to find..............NOTHING!! GRRRR....... or I find the remnant of an egg shell...... They have been eating about half and I've been getting about half. Day before yesterday did it. I have some smarty pants young pullets and it is the same old story.......a egg cracked as it was laid and they ate it. They found out it was yummy and it was on. These red pullets would climb all over the laying hen just waiting for the egg to pop out. So I grabbed the 4 red pullets and put them in chicken jail. $%#$$%%$ chickens!!

The next day I realized one of the red pullets was Green Legs, a well behaved young lady who didn't belong in the pokey with such hardened criminals. I granted her reprieve and put her in the coop. She promptly laid a small pullet egg and joined the other girls out in the run. The egg count went up without those ravenous feathered sharks snapping them like alligators.

The 3 bad girls even laid 2 pullet eggs and they didn't eat them probably because they only like the LARGE eggs. Yesterday I ordered mats to go in the bottom of the new roll out nest boxes I will now build. I will use Opa's plans for the new nest boxes.

http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/287684/new-rollout-nest-design-picture-heavy-edited-1-21

This evening I let the chickens out of the coop and run for the first time in a couple of months. I totally resodded the back yard with San Augustine grass and have been keeping the girls up so it could take root and grow. DH has had it mowed several times and it is beautiful. The girls were in heaven! They nibbled grass, ran, clucked, and roamed the yard. Not the criminal gang of Jeffery Dahmer cannibals! The prisoners threw themselves against the wire that separated them from their victims. They wanted out so bad!! MUHAHAHA!!!! Who's bad now? Huh? The miscreants screeched BA-GAWK! BA-GAWK! They worked themselves into a frenzy until they panted with exhaustion, only to see their former friends running amok in the lush green grass. But. Not. Them.

Stay tuned for part two.

 

[897tgigvib]

Mugshots. Clawprints!

Will the trial be televised?

 

[bj taylor]

whew. those girls are in some big time trouble. I can almost hear it up here in the north part of Texas.
show some pics of your pretty saint Augustine lawn. i'm so jealous

 

[desertlady]

put fake golfballs or eggs in their nests. also fill eggs with mustard, they hate it !

 

[digitS']

It is the nest . . .

The nest is sacred. Sure, they treat it as a day spa but they need a place to relax as best they can. "Sacred" is too strong a word but it is relative to the egg.

The egg is only a part of the nest. If it turns up anywhere else, it is only some round object. Or, if some #$%&& chicken has befouled the nest - it is a round object in what was once . . . a nest. If they learn that it can be eaten, they will probably eat it.

I cover the nests. If there is any indication that there is any tampering with the eggs - I really cover the nest! The idea is, they won't eat what they can't see.

Still, they will push aside a piece of tarp or whatever, and crawl in to lay the egg.

No roosting in the nests!! The nest is befouled with that kind of behavior. Of course, they probably won't crawl into a dark nest to roost.

No building a nest on the floor. No, "Oh look! Bridget wants to build a little nest in the corner of the coop. That is so cute!" Well, what does Brunhilda think of it when she discovers that egg lying on the floor? What will Barney do when he sees that egg? Kick the nest apart -- throw a roll of chicken wire in the corner. The nest is over here in the box! I have actually helped pullets walk up the ramp to the nestbox and "discover" it - and how wonderful it is!

Steve

 

[lesa]

Very frustrating problem, for sure! One other to check on- are the shells strong? Perhaps, they could use some calcium in their diet?

 

[bj taylor]

i have to 'throw a ball of wire in the corner' my laying hens are laying all over the place for a while & the coop has been in mild chaos. that will soon smooth out, but some good info here.
bay, good luck breaking those beasties from eating the eggs.

 

[MontyJ]

Chicken jail??? Chicken Jail!!! I say give them all butt tattoos!!!

Stew pot...stew pot...stew pot...

 

[baymule]

Very frustrating problem, for sure! One other to check on- are the shells strong? Perhaps, they could use some calcium in their diet?

They get their oyster shell. And I save eggshells sometimes and crush them, then put them in cornmeal mush. When I fry something that I rolled in cornmeal, I add a little water and nuke in the microwave. Stir in crushed eggshells and let it cool. They love it!

 

[baymule]

Chicken jail??? Chicken Jail!!! I say give them all butt tattoos!!!

Stew pot...stew pot...stew pot...

NOOOOOOO!!!! These are young pullets that have just started to lay. No stew pot! They need to mind their manners! Chicken jail for now until I get the new nest box built. Maybe a retro-fit for the existing nest box. The nest box matts have shipped.