Hi,
Forming and laying eggs is very hard on a female. It’s best to make changes to discourage egg laying. If she keeps this up, it will end up killing her. They are only meant to lay eggs once a year, so you can imagine what it is doing to her health to keep laying eggs over and over. As for eating the egg, this is the best thing she can do as it will replace some of the resources she lost when forming the egg. But you need to make these changes to try to get her to stop. If she won’t stop, you need to consult with an Avian Vet about hormone treatments for her.
Keep in mind that to lay eggs, she needs longer daylight, warmer weather, abundant food, and a quiet, private environment. The goal is to reverse these conditions. In the wild, they get signals from nature to end breeding season, but in captivity, if ideal conditions continue to be provided, a hen will literally lay eggs until it kills her. In the wild they only breed once a year, and typically only raise one clutch per year.
Limit her light to 8-10 hours by covering the cage early each evening
Do not give her anything to use as a nest – no bird huts or tents, no box, bowl, etc. If she decides to sit in a food bowl, remove it and replace with smaller cups.
Do not give her anything to shred such as paper or cardboard.
Rearrange the toys in the cage frequently.
Move the cage to a different place in the room. Move the cage about once a week, or whenever she shows signs of nesting – settling on the cage floor for example. This disrupts her idea of having a stable place to lay eggs and raise chicks.
If you feed a lot of fresh foods, stop offering any for a couple of weeks, and then only offer them in small amounts about 2 or 3 times a week. You can resume normal feeding later when the birds aren’t being hormonal.
If she is let out of the cage, do not let her get in any dark cozy places and don’t give her free roam.
When you handle her, limit any petting to only the head and neck – do not pet a bird on the body. Only a bonded mate is allowed to groom the body. We can’t be a mate, so touching the body is off limits.
If there is no metal floor grate, then do not use any bedding or paper in the cage tray – leave it bare and clean it daily.
If the hen doesn’t stop laying, and continues to lay clutch after clutch, then a hormone implant or shots should be considered. The implant is proving to be very effective with most chronic egg layers.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
