Why do chickens peck their eggs?

[Guest guest]

My egg source says his chickens are starting to peck at their own

eggs, does anyone know of any reason for alarm? Thanks,

Scot

[Guest guest]

Most chicken now adays don't know how to sit on eggs, also look at the

calcium levels they are getting if any.

kitas84535 wrote:

> My egg source says his chickens are starting to peck at their own

> eggs, does anyone know of any reason for alarm? Thanks,

> Scot

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

At 02:34 PM 3/27/2002 +0000, you wrote:

>My egg source says his chickens are starting to peck at their own

>eggs, does anyone know of any reason for alarm? Thanks,

>Scot

It's cause for alarm if they start eating them. Chickens are not

emotionally attached to their eggs, and often develop a taste for them.

Some farmers will not feed them eggshell, for this reason (they get a taste

for it!). If a chicken really starts eating eggs, then the chicken

(according to the books) ends up in the stewpot.

They could also have calcium deficiency, which my first batch of chickens

got. Birds aren't meant to lay an egg a day for their entire lives, and

they really can't get enough calcium, I think, from the normal diet. They

need oyster shell (cheap). Commercial chickens may not need it or get it, I

don't know: but they aren't allowed to lay more than a year before they

become cat food. My first batch ended up getting really thin shelled eggs,

which cracked, and then they ate them. The replacement chickens have not

had this problem, they get oyster shell.

They could also be getting 'broody', which is a pain: they want to raise

chicks. A brooding hen turns the eggs (which I guess looks like pecking a

little), but they also won't leave the nest voluntarily for weeks.

-- Heidi S.