Chicken help!!!

About a month ago I introduced 6 hens about 12 weeks old to my flock of 2 year olds. One of the 2 year olds is now pecking the eggs and several others help clean up. What is the best way to break this? I'm thinking of a trail cam in the coop to find and separate the guilty party. I built a declined nest box to roll the eggs away, but they refuse to use it. I have a ceramic decoy egg and 3 golf balls in the nesting boxes, nothing is working. Help? Thanks!

Are they hungry?? The first flock is gonna bully the younger one, atleast mine do. They do however get along in the egg laying department. Do you have a rooster in there with them?

No rooster. I have food in there at all times. The older ones bullied for about a week then they all settled in, pecking order established. They all act like they have always been together except for the egg pecking! I had 4-5 eggs a day from 6 hens. I have 12 now and zero eggs, just empty hammered shells!

If your chickens are penned up start letting them out when you are home. If your chickens are already free ranging and you still are experiencing this then find the guilty party and make chicken and dumplings.
Once a chicken starts eating eggs there is no stopping it. The other chickens will get a taste for eggs to if given the opportunity. Find the problem and eliminate it.

Cull the egg eating chicken and any others with egg on their face. The behavior can quickly spread through the entire flock because they learn egg eating rapidly from observing other chickens doing it. Blinders and debeaking don't help much once they have already started eating eggs.

Keith

I have always had to get rid of the chicken. BUT my wife has had success filling an egg with hot mustard and putting it back in the coop. Tastes so bad they didn't do it again

Maybe try dumping a bottle of hot sauce on the eggs and let them have at it lol

Soup

I never mix older birds with new birds. The old birds ( after 3 laying sessions) go to the pot. And the new team takes ovah the coup.

As said above, identify the egg-eater and get rid of it.

How does she drain and fill an egg?

Pm sent

Lesson learned!

I put a trail cam in the coop, once identified, the guilty one will be delt with. Thanks eveyone.

I just struggled with this over the last couple of years. I put a trail camera in the coop. Lots of hours of video with nothing worth seeing...didn't work.
I did the mustard in the blown out egg...didn't work. I separated each bird into a dog crate with a couple eggs and if the egg was pecked they met an axe...didn't work. I killed anything that I caught with egg on it's face...didn't work.

I ended up with a new brooder of chicks ready to turn loose in the coop and I killed the entire flock of older birds. I say nip it in the bud with a liberal application of an axe and full brooder.

I have had to cull entire colonies of 70 coturnix quail hens and 20 roosters several times, when they have learned to egg eat. If you cull the guilty birds when they first start, you can stop it, but very soon after it's to late.

Keith

I never had that problem. I feed the shells back, maybe that would help. They fight over the empty shells I give back until they have enough, then walk right past them.

We've never had an egg-eater either. We feed shells back along with most other table scraps. Some folks have told me that feeding shells will encourage egg-eating. I don't think it helps prevent or encourage the practice.

Try collecting the eggs early as possible.

Kill the egg pecker, I feed my chickens any dirty eggs I have, only once had any trouble, it was a hen that was getting picked on and she hung out in the egg box and broke eggs. I've put unbroken eggs with broke eggs and the chickens clean up the broke ones and then go look for crickets..

Get some ceramic fake eggs they lose interest in pecking at them then.

Dont kill them.i had some that started eating eggs and I did mustard and soft soap in blown out eggs. The softsoap filled ones stopped em in their tracks.

Oyster shells you can get em at most feed stores might be missing the minerals needed to produce eggs