Countrysiders:

Does anyone have a pattern for a goat kid? My daughter needs one for a 4-H project. The one we wrote the extension office for, the no longer have. The one in the picture was life size and stuffed. I also need to know if there is any way to break chickens of egg eating. I know its the chickens, not something getting in the henhouse. I have raised chickens for many years but have never had them eat the eggs.

Thanks, L. Graham

-- Graham (ab-ka-lo@ckt.net), March 08, 2000

Answers

I'm sorry I can't help you with the pattern question but as far as the egg eating chickens go, I have had this happen in the past. Problem is once they eat a few eggs they begin to like them so it's hard to break the habit. We finally broke them from doing this by making sure we got to the eggs before they did. After awhile they must have forgotten about how tasty the eggs were. Your other alternative is to devise a nesting box that would allow the egg to rolll into another compartment that the chickens can't get to. Hope this helps.

-- Kathy Swietlik (jubilant@ncweb.com), March 08, 2000.

Try putting ping pong balls or golf balls in the nests. Leave these there for them to become frustrated with. Place them on the hen house floor if needed. They easily tire of the unyielding "eggs" that they quit eating them. A 6 yo gave me this tip and they were right in my case.

-- Anne (HealthyTouch101@hotmail.com), March 08, 2000.

My hens also were eating their eggs last fall. I think my problem were the new hens I added to the group. It was a bad habit !!!! Now that the snow has melted and it's warmed up (for this week anyway) they are able to free range and haven't cracked an egg yet. I think mine were bored with being cooped up. I tried calcium added to their grit but that didn't seem to help.

-- Pat (pmikul@pcpros.net), March 08, 2000.

The way we broke hens or other animals from eating eggs was to puncture an egg, break the yolk through the hole, and drain the contents out. Sometimes you will need to puncture a hole in both ends of the eggs and blow the contents out, other times not. Mix the removed contents with lots of red pepper, a hot tabasco sauce or other extremely hot stuff. Place the contents back in the egg and seal it in in some manner. When the critter breaks and eats the egg it fires them up so much that they don't want any part of doing it again. You may wish to check out this chicken site for other information. http://www.geocities.com/~cowpokinfun/chickens.htm

-- greenbeanman (greenbeanman@ourtownusa.net), March 09, 2000.

Responding to your egg-eating chickens. If I ever catch one of my chickens running around with a hunk of shell in her little beak, I catch her and we eat her for dinner. Egg-eating is a practice that seems to spread through a flock like wild fire. My method seems to work quite well if one is able to pinpoint the culprit. Good luck!

-- Kim Scales (barkinbarnyard@rrv.net), July 02, 2000.