Ask the Experts June/July 2024
Carla Tilghman, Ana Skemp, and Audra Trosper answer your poultry questions about egg eating, lash eggs, raisins as treats, and lime water after water glassing eggs.
Egg-Eating Chickens
How do I know which chicken is eating my eggs?
Backyard Poultry subscriber
The easiest way to figure out which chicken is the egg-eating culprit is to separate your chickens one by one. Create a small pen within your run (with food and water) and see if any chicken reveals themselves as the eater.
There are several reasons why chickens start eating eggs. Calcium deficiency (they’re really eating the shell). Protein deficiency (they’re eating the egg white). Fat deficiency (they’re eating the yolk). Or they’re just hungry.
How can you address these deficiencies:
- Offer a separate container with calcium in the form of oyster shells.
- Check the protein levels of your chicken feed. If they’re eating eggs they may benefit from a higher protein feed. You can either use a specific feed for layers, or you can offer supplemental protein in the form of occasional mealworms.
- Offer the birds suet to increase fat. But only as an occasional treat so you don’t cause other heath issues such as fatty liver.
If your birds are eating up every scrap of their feed well before the next time you feed them, they may simply be hungry. Same with their water; if their waterers are empty, they’ll go for eggs for the moisture.
Carla
Raisins as Treats
Do roosters like raisins? Is it okay to give them some?
Susan Vaillancourt
Hello Susan,
What a fun question! Our birds like most fruits, and when I offered them some raisins, just now, they snapped them up eagerly. Raisins aren’t toxic to chickens, so feel free to offer some to your rooster. A few treats now and then keep the birds amused and you can use treats to train them as well.
Carla
Strange Egg
This “egg” was laid by my healthy, before and after, hen. This was about 6 months ago and there hasn’t been another one since. She lives in a 100-foot-plus fenced-in pasture and sleeps in a closed-in loft. The egg had no shell. What do you think caused this peculiar egg?
Thank you,
Judie Chapman
Hi Judie,
This looks like a lash egg which is caused by salpingitis, a bacterial infection in the hen’s oviduct. It’s not actually an egg, but they’re often egg-shaped because they travel through a hen’s reproductive system. Lash eggs often consist of multiple layers — as the mass travels through the reproductive system, the hen’s body attempts to encapsulate the infection and then expel it. Lash eggs can be a one-time occurrence or can be a sign of a larger problem. It’s great news that your hen was healthy before and after she passed the lash egg. It sounds like she was able to take care of it on her own!
Good luck with her,
Ana
Lime Water from Water Glasses Eggs
I want to know what to do with the lime water AFTER you use all the eggs in your container. Is it safe to put down the sink and into your septic system? Is it safe to put in the garden? What about the shells? Can they be used in the garden (crushed) or do they have too much lime in them?
Thank you,
M. Burton
First, it’s not recommended to dump the lime down your sink, as it can harm your septic system. It can be poured into the compost pile if there aren’t gallons and gallons. It’s a culinary lime, so it’s not toxic but highly alkaline. This could benefit an extremely acidic garden or a garden that’s a little too acidic but wants to grow root crops. If the garden is neutral, and especially if it falls on the alkaline side, the lime water shouldn’t go onto the soil. Composting would be the best plan, since compost tends to be quite acidic.
We hope this helps!
Ana and Audra
