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drolfes |
Cannibalism Cause and Prevention in Poultry |
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eggcentric |
> Cannibalism Cause and Prevention in Poultry | #1 | ||
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thanks Delana. Though I don't agree with some of the beak trimming suggested.
here's another link, and at the left are things like prevention, treatment, good practice, etc. to click on. www.organic-vet.reading.a...feath1.htm |
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rainidame |
Re: > Cannibalism Cause and Prevention in Poultry | #2 | ||
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I'm curious why everyone calls poultry murder, cannibalism. Is it really an "eating" thing or a murder thing. I guess I haven't experience anything more violent than egg eating and that would be normal for hens to "clean up" the unviable eggs to keep areas clean from predator invites. . . I still discourage it, but it isn't cannibalism. And I have been reading lots of the stuff listed on this forum about the subject and still it sounds more like assault and murder more than "food".
Just curious, am I missing something? |
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jim l |
egg eating | #3 | ||
i'am new at this, my birds are 9 mo's old,RIR's. I found a broken egg, it was eaten. how do i stop this
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rainidame |
Re: egg eating | #4 | ||
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One way is to be sure to get the eggs before the chickens have time to get to it. Also I have read that you should be sure to have nesting boxes, so they have a particular place to lay eggs off the ground. Otherwise, remember that non-viable eggs in a nest sooner or later have to be gotten rid of, so the hens instincts will be to eat them.
If you feed your chickens eggs, which many do, be sure they are not offered in natural whole form. Cook them, crush the shells, etc. Also are you sure it was the hens and not rats or snakes getting to them? |
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treeclimber |
Re: Cannibalism Cause and Prevention in Poultry | #5 | ||
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One way to stop chickens from eating their eggs is to make the egg box dark inside. If they can't see the eggs they will stop eating them. I had a hen that got to the point where she would lay the egg and then turn around and eat it. I just made the nest box completely dark and the eating stopped. But she never forgot. For several months I would occasionally lay an egg in the pen just to see what she would do. Then a raccoon got her.
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dixieshiksa |
Re: Cannibalism Cause and Prevention in Poultry | #6 | ||
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my chickens are 1 yr old and are eating most of their eggs,the chicken coop is pretty dark already except for a small door to get in,are their any other remedies,ive tried extra oyster shell
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DragonxSlayer |
Re: Cannibalism Cause and Prevention in Poultry | #7 | ||
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Yes, there actually is another way to stop it and ive found it works great. Though most would say its mean, you get an egg and blow it out and then put wax at one end to fill that hole then fill the egg with tabasco sauce and put wax over that hole and put it back in the nesting box. If you have more than one egg eating hen get several eggs and do this over a period of time.
I had a hen that ate her eggs i had just foud this out when i had to cage her and i put a tabaco filled egg in with her and i left when i came back the egg was cracked open and her water was empty which i had just filled it an nour ago. She learned her lesson not to eat eggs and since then she hasnt. I had another hen do the same thing i just put a tabasco filled egg in a few days ago. Though she hasnt layed yet Im pretty sure it worked. Shes also caged. |
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DuckyChickenLady |
Re: Cannibalism Cause and Prevention in Poultry | #8 | ||
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Ok...am checking this out...I just posted this....in Emergencies..
Quote: ***Excellent article! I believe they had too much light! Weird! Also, I am going to get them on proper laying ration. For now I added sunflower seeds and a bit of cat food to their diet. Good heavens...this is so weird. |
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amigocontodos |
Re: egg eating | #9 | ||
Quote: I doubt very seriously any chicken has the mentality to choose which eggs are viable or not and any chicken, rooster included will take it upon themselves to eat any egg they have access too. IMHO...it's good, they like it and if they can figure out the way to access they do. Todd
Little Debbie Ambassador! |
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deckerscolorado |
Chickens eating chickens | #10 | ||
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We've had lots of chickens in the past and we've read about cannibalism but this year we increased our flock size, but also the size of the range area,
but alas it mustn't be big enough, or ??? They don't have any artificial light because their big house is facing south, so the light has never been a
factor before. Anyway, they're eating each other and its really gross. You don't want to see this!! They will peck a hole into a chicken within a few
hours, and peck it to death by the end of the day if they're not monitored well. We've set up a separate hospital area for those that have had their
backsides pecked, or small holes near their tail/vent area, and if we catch it quick enough then they heal within a couple of days and can be reintroduced. We
are going to try some Pine Tar this week, hopefully that will help heal and get rid of the reddish color from the pecking. Iodine works well for the wounds but
it makes the area orange and brings it to all the other hens attention. I think they see the pinkish/red skin which is exposed when they've pecked the
feathers away from the smaller less agressive birds and then the frenzy is on. Its like a red cloak to a bull, these hens see red and they go crazy to get it.
We lost a Buff Orpington the other day as its entire vent was pecked out overnight. Man these girls can be cruel, no evil. Our rooster looked fine until
recently, but he gives a whole new meaning to the term "hen-pecked male", we really feel sorry for him and grab him and put him outside each day at
the moment. He's miserable without his hens but he looks really worse for wear. We've had a lot of snow here this winter and they won't venture too
far from their house, so we think this has caused the crowding, even though we've shovelled away most of the snow. They have a big enough area but
aren't using it all, because the size was fine until now. This started 7 days ago so we are really getting aggresive so it doesn't get out of control.
We've checked for lice etc, but its just plain evil chickens at their best, or worst. So we have a few options we're working on: more feed spread
around in a larger area, ie grass, cracked corn, vegies; apply black tar to camaflouge the reddish area so they quick going after it as if its a red berry; put
the anti-peck guards on - but how? Anyone have the name of a book which can tell us how to apply these things. MurryMcMurray sell them, and the pliers. Has
anyone used them? Be thankful your hens are only going after your eggs and not each other!
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smoky73 |
#11 | |||
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I have had this problem in the past but with only certain breeds. I found that my buff orpingtons would gang up on any other bird different than they were and
get them in a corner and just beat them. I had loved the orpintons they were great with people but the ones I had were murderous to other birds.
I used blue kote on wounds. It worked well and alot less messy than pine tar, as I went that route too before.
~ Cara ~
http://www.silverpulletpoultry.net |
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tinkertoyyorki |
Cannabil Chickens/Bantam Araucanas | #12 | ||
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I have had a problem with these birds. In the past 3 months they have managed to "eat" hens. They actually
pick their intestines out. I've had 6 foot of intestines in their pen. I'm down to 2 hens from 8. All of them "ATE". This is so gross. I finally put 1 female and 1 male in a individual pen. These are about 6 to 7 months old or were that age before they were killed. They get laying pellets mixed with kelp/probotics and game bird food that has different seeds in it. I've never had a problem like this. I have never had a breed do this to each other literally eat them. |
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