How you want to eat only healthy and environmentally friendly products! And so you decided to get chickens, look after them, feed them, wait for fresh testicles. But it turns out that it does not work to collect the beneficial fruits of the "economy". Birds independently absorb them: they begin to peck and eat an egg. The picture, say, is unpleasant and unprofitable enough for the owner. What is the problem here, how to deal with such a phenomenon? Why do chickens peck eggs, despite the fact that you regularly feed and care for them?
Poor bird nutrition
Do not assume that you can feed chickens only with waste from the master's table! Poultry for reproduction should receive high-quality and balanced food. Otherwise, you do not have to rely on fresh eggs. When choosing a food, pay attention to the content of calcium and vitamin D. It is these elements that make up the body of the hen with the necessary trace elements, and she will not “look” for these substances on the side.
If you are wondering about whether chickens are biting eggs, what to do, be sure to try adding fortified feed to the birds' daily diet. The PK-1 compound feed is perfect. This mixture contains B1, B2, B4, B5, B6, B12. In addition, the manufacturer adds meat and bone meal with sufficient calcium content to the feed. Very effective and premix "Ryabushka".
How to feed
Do not think that the more food, the better the bird grows and rushes. It's not about quantity, but only quality! If chickens peck eggs, try this diet for every day (in grams for 1 day):
- Crushed corn - 40.
- Boiled potatoes - 50-60.
- Wheat - 20.
- Sunflower meal - 10-15.
- Baking yeast - 1-2.
- Fish flour - 4-5.
- Carrots, greens, rutabaga - 20.
- Meat waste (ground) - 10.
- Chalk - 3.
- Salt - 0.5.
- Shell - 5.
It is highly likely that with such nutrition your layers will lose their desire to spoil eggs, however, they will have to wait 5-10 days until the body adapts and replenishes with vitamins.
Building the right nesting place
Chicken pecks eggs, what to do? You can avoid such a nuisance by reviewing the conditions of the birds. The correct arrangement of the chicken coop should begin with the construction of a comfortable nest. Oddly enough, but the wrong "home" can lead to the destruction of eggs. Pay special attention to lighting, it should be muted and not dazzle the bird, even in winter. If you can’t darken the space, try hanging at least 1/3 of a simple burlap or curtain of perches. Just make sure that the bird does not get tangled and break its paw. In addition, it is not allowed to perch high above the ceiling.
Do not save space - nearby nests will lead to the fact that your laying hens will visit each other and destroy the masonry. In addition, a small space forces the chicken to step on the egg, and as soon as it breaks, they will necessarily peck! The shape of the perch is also important - if you have too little space, design it in such a way that after the appearance of the egg it rolls smoothly into a special gutter. To do this, the recess is laid out with grass. However, this method requires constant daily monitoring. Otherwise, one egg may break another when rolled.
"Pasture"
Experienced farmers claim that the productivity of laying hens directly depends on their walks! Grazing should be carried out in a spacious enclosure, where vegetation and preferably small pebbles or sand are necessarily present. Layers should have the opportunity to calmly "graze", and not to crowd with other "girlfriends" in one place. Such a regime of maintenance leads not only to low productivity of the bird, but also to the fact that laying hens peck their eggs. If you do not have the opportunity to build a separate pen for the bird, you need to release the bird to the open area once a day. To make her run, she plucked the grass and stocked up with proteins in the form of worms and midges.
Beginner Farmers Misses
Why do chickens peck eggs? Very often, the owner decides to feed the eggshells, believing that this is an invaluable source of calcium! There is a rational grain in this, but you need to properly prepare such food:
- The shell must be dried and not have the smell of protein.
- It is necessary to grind it very finely.
- Do not give as a separate “dish”, be sure to mix food, for example, with grated vegetables so that the chicken could not choose it separately from complementary foods.
If these conditions are not met, the chicken can get used to the taste of the shell and begin to peck whole eggs, but it is very difficult to stop such a process.
Pest in the nest
Unfortunately, even observing all of the above rules will not help you if you have an aggressor chicken. Due to, for example, a natural need or a violation of the hormonal background, or because she has already tried many eggs, she will still peck the shell. In this case, you will have to calculate it and destroy it immediately, otherwise, as you know, a bad example is contagious. How to recognize her: such a “lady” will climb into other people's nests or constantly spin around roosts.
Mandatory measures
If chickens peck eggs, what to do when the "pest" became known? If you do not want to cut it, try isolating it for a while. In about a week, she should forget the taste of the egg. In addition, some owners recommend trimming the top of the beak and burning with a hot iron. During isolation, it is necessary to intensively feed the hen with feeds with a high content of calcium and vitamin D. If such a measure is not effective, you will have to cook a delicious broth!
Little tricks
Hens peck eggs, what to do? Experienced poultry houses came up with an original way to deal with this phenomenon. For the nest of the pest, it is necessary to prepare an egg dummy. To do this, carefully remove all contents from the whole product, dry it and fill it with the following ingredients of your choice:
- Mustard.
- Hot pepper.
- Vinegar.
The hole must be made small so that the contents do not leak. Use a syringe with a needle for this. Having pecked such an egg once, the laying hen will stop trying this "treat". And here is our ancestors used such a trick - from a steep, well-salted dough, an egg model is prepared. It must be dried and then put in a nest. The layer will try to peck it several times, it will not succeed, and it will leave this bad habit. Here is a simple method used by people who know how to wean chickens to peck eggs.
Additional feed
You can also decompose in small portions in the aviary or hen house a little shell rock or slaked lime, bone meal, river sand, chalk. See if the birds will peck on these top dressings; if so, then they definitely lack calcium and vitamins. Be sure to buy complete feeds that meet quality standards. Try adding calcium gluconate to your diet (at least for a week). It can be crushed (3 tablets per day) or the contents of the ampoule can be added to water (10% solution).
Inexpensive ingredients
If you don’t have the opportunity to purchase expensive food and don’t know why chickens bite eggs, try adding milk-containing foods to your diet. They are also rich in calcium, vitamin D and essential fats. Use not water, but, for example, whey as a drink. Even if at first the bird ignores it, it will soon get used to it. If there is any leftover yogurt or cottage cheese, mix them into the feed.
An economical option will be capelin: it must first be boiled, otherwise chickens may appear in worms. Feeding hens with such a delicacy can be up to 3 times a week. Provide free access to water for chickens even at night, the drinker should always be filled! Millet is very useful to germinate and only then feed the bird. To prevent the chickens from pecking eggs, try to cook such a composition yourself: grind the bone residue and fill it with warm water, leave it to brew for a couple of hours. After that, thoroughly mix this mixture with the usual compound feed available to you. The mixture will provide quick replenishment of the bird's body with calcium.
Afterword
So we examined the main reasons why chickens bite eggs. To avoid these troubles, try to use all the tips in a complex, this is the approach that will provide you with the best result. These tips are especially relevant in the winter, when the bird does not consume fresh herbs and natural protein. Take care, and then your little birds will thank you, providing tasty and fresh eggs every day.