I have 6 Black Australorps and 5 Buff Orpington hens and they are eating their eggs almost as fast as they lay them. They are 9 months old. They have plenty of room, nice nesting boxes, and I feed them laying mash and cracked corn, and the get all the grit they want. Plus I throw them a chunk of hay every few days and they seem to love that. How can I prevent them from eating their eggs? PLEASE HELP! Thanks in advance for any info.

They might need more calcium... or ... they might just like the taste of them. You can put mustard in an empty egg and let them get a taste of it... mine haven't touched an egg since! If it's a calcium problem, you can give them oyster shells (ground up) or their egg shells. But if you give them egg shells, be sure that they are ground up really good, so that they can't recognize what it is. I would use oyster shells between the two. I hope this helps! Good luck!

~Angela

Sounds like to me you need to give them oyster shells for calicum . Ground shells that is. Feed them free choice.

Two more questions, my girls have mites and will my horses, goat, dogs, cat (he's inside but my dogs are in and out), or I get mites from them, can they, or can I get those digusting little parasites? Also, the mites are around the vent, is their any praticular name for them?

YoYo

Sorry, didn't mean to post that here.

YoYo

Anonymous:
Try darkening their nests if they are not already dark. A nice dark spot is where hens like to gather their clutches for hatching. In a darkened nest the eggs will also attract less attention from other hens. Usually a hen doesn't begin by eating her own eggs, another hen gets in and the cycle begins.
The advise given above by the others is sound but in case they are not lacking calcium, then adding it won't help.

Good Luck,
James

YoYo
Lice and mites that are attracted to birds are not attracted to other animals or humans. You can get them on your skin by handling a heavily infested bird but they will not live and reproduce on you.
Treat lice and mites with Sevin dust, it's the best for mites and is very good for lice.
The mites you see around the vent area of your birds are called Northern Fowl Mites. Give them a good dusting and repeat in 10 days. In the past when I have seen a bad infestation in my birds (it happens quickly), I try to get the debris out of the clump of feathers on the back end after 3 or 4 days, then when I give the second treatment in 10 days, it's easier to get right down to the skin. It's important with the first dusting to separate the feathers so the dust gets down as far as it can to be effective.
I dust now once every month and haven't seen any lice or mites for a couple of years.

James