Fairy Egg

I got a surprise fairy egg yesterday.  It must be from the latest set of pullets we got last October.  Just to show you how small.  I fried it along with the normal sized egg (pictures below).  Fairy eggs are laid by very young hen.  It will eventually get bigger over time but the first few eggs usually are very small.

Just to digress, the first picture is how I dressed really early in the morning to clean the nesting boxes and the floor of the coop.  I didn’t last more than 10 minutes.  My fingers felt so painful I couldn’t move them even when I was wearing an insulated gloves.  That’s how bad -20 C is.  I feel bad for people who has to work outdoors.  Needless to say, the nesting boxes wasn't done cleaning.  Water in the big bucket froze by mid-afternoon.  And still my girls laid 5 eggs today so I gave them some kale.

I prayed and there I got 9 eggs today!

Coincidence, maybe, but I was praying last night and asking God to please make my hens stop eating their eggs. I’m getting really desperate with my hen’s egg-eating problem. I’ve done so much for them and this is what they do to me?  How am I supposed to forgive them or spare them from becoming a chicken stew?  And guess what, today, I have 9 eggs. 

It should have been 10 but 1 egg was broken and frozen and I think they may have eaten the other half of it.  But that’s a big improvement from yesterday where I got none.  So I gave them a variety of food such as greens, melon, garlic and more oyster shells. 

And also today has been slightly warmer (by that I mean -8 C as opposed to -18 C).  I’ve also shoveled at the front of the coop to give them some room to roam.  It’s not a lot so this weekend I’ll shovel more so they have more outdoor space.  I’ve dumped the soiled straw and wood shavings right at the coop entrance because I figured it will cover some of the snow (pic below).  I usually throw out the soiled shavings out in a designated field outside the run.

The following three pictures is how bad the snow had piled up in front of the coop the other day when I didn’t shovel since last Sunday.  They obviously cannot move around.

I’ve done all the preventive measures as much as I can and prayers did help.  See the power of prayers?  Can you imagine all of these stuff I’m doing for these spoiled chickens?  I hope and continue to pray this egg-eating problem will completely stop.  And God does answer prayers. Thank God.  I can relax for now.  Tomorrow will be another day.

I have devil hens

Hens eating their own eggs – I think this bad habit had started long before winter.  I remember around early fall, we were not getting any substantial number of eggs.  I thought it was just because of the season’s shorter day light.  And there were days not a single egg can be found and I was very disappointed considering the breeds we have are supposed to lay eggs in the winter.  They might have slowed down but it was hard to believe that they've completely stopped laying eggs in the winter.  
 

Then I discovered one day in January while cleaning the nest boxes, a bunch of hens were eating an egg that was just laid.  I desperately tried to stop them but failed.  And it happened again a couple of days later while I was inside the coop.  They even seem to gang up and wait around until a hen lays an egg and then attack the hen that was sitting there.  Even the most protective broody hen (pic below) that will bite you if you come near her could not ward off these pesky egg eaters. 

 I’ve read this behavior can be due to lack of enough food inside the coop, but that is not our case.  They have plenty of feeds inside the coop and always have fresh water outside.  This winter though I’ve placed their water outside and when it’s too cold most chicken won’t go out at all.  So maybe that’s the reason why they feel the need to eat their own eggs for moisture.   

The other reason could be lack of calcium.  So I’ve now been giving them oyster shells on a regular basis to boost their calcium.  And it will make the egg shell stronger therefore less likely to break when they peck on it.  These hens below are eating the oyster shells.  It's amazing they can eat these hard small pebbles of shells.

I’ve been monitoring the flock but the egg eating problem has not stopped at all.  There are more than one perpetrators and I’ve caught them in the act.  I’ve also placed fake marble eggs on their nest so if they try to peck on it hopefully they would realize that it is not tasty but it hasn’t worked at all.  It’s supposed to fool them into stopping the behavior if they are unsuccessful.   They still eat the eggs. 

 

I have been going to the coop at least 3 times a day to check for eggs but I don’t see any.  I had to wait for the hen to lay and retrieve the egg while she was still on the nest one Sunday but I can’t be standing there all day waiting for them to lay eggs.  The thing is during winter they don’t have much room to roam outside so they can get bored and could be what started this nasty egg-eating behavior Maybe they're doing it just for the fun of it. 

 

My last attempt this weekend will be to put a curtain in their nest boxes so they won’t see the hens or the eggs.  And it would also give the hens privacy while they’re trying to lay eggs.  I’ve read this on several websites and blogs.  I can use the feed sacks as curtains or search the house for scrap fabrics or old curtains.  And if this doesn’t work, what do you think?  I might get an incubator and start again.  Maybe time for me to have some fresh chicken stew.  It is getting too expensive not to have any eggs.  If I’m not home they will eat all 8 to 10 eggs in one day.  And it’s a sad reality only the hens are doing this.  If it were the roosters, I would have no problem culling them immediately.

Apple cider vinegar and garlic

I’ve read on the internet that apple cider vinegar is like a natural antibiotic for chickens so I added about a tablespoon in their water about twice a week.  I hope it works.  They need to boost their immune system in the winter.

Also learned garlic is also good for them so I fed them some.  I hope their eggs won’t taste garlicky.  I bought a huge bag (5 lb) of peeled garlic from a Chinese store and I've been so tired of eating garlic every day.  There still so much left so I gave them to the chickens.

I made sure everyone got a bite.

 On a side note, see how bad the roosters are.  They pull the hen's feather (look at the picture above) when they're breeding.  I have decided to cull some of the roosters.  I'm still trying to select which ones and that would be another blog post.