K<:<: KATIXO IIKNS 77 



EGG EATING HENS. 



An egg eater is a bird that has contracted the habit of breaking the 

 sound shell of an egg with her beak and eating the contents. If not 

 cloyed with shell she will eat the shell also unle-s some other lien gets 

 ahead other. It requires very close observation, sometimes, to detect 

 an egg eater. The fact that we find a nest moist with egg. or see a 

 bird with feel or beak smeared with egg doe- not prove that the egg- 

 eating habit is present. Any fowl will eat a broken egg, and thin- 

 shelled eggs are very easily broken ill any nesl or elsewhere. In open 

 nests that contain ncsl-eggs. or eggs previously laid by other hens, a 

 thin-shelled egg' is very likely to be broken at the moment it drops from 

 the bird. ThK egg will be eaten by the lir-l bird that smells it: prob- 

 ably the one (hat laid it. The finding of the nest, the eggs, or the beak 

 of the bird smeared with egg might give rise to the assumption that the 

 vice of egg eating had developed in the flock. A sound egg left in 

 some convenient place ought to show if there are any egg eaters present. 



ISroken egg- may induce the habit of egg eating-. The absence of 

 oyster shell or other supposed egg-shell-makers may induce it. 1 have 

 noticed that when the shell-box had been empty for some time the birds 

 would make frantic efforts to break a sound egg placed before them — 

 without success however. 



I have tried a number of times to teach my hens the art of breaking 

 and eating eggs in order to study the matter more closely, but without 

 success. A broken i'yj; thrown upon the ground would be devoured 

 in an instant but a sound ^<r could be left around in safety. 



A number of years ago I had several hens that formed the genuine 

 egg eating habit in trap-nest- of two compartments. First they would 

 pull the egg out of the nest and it would break or crack when it fell. 

 After a while they learned the trick of breaking the eggs with their 

 beaks. I found that, in order to puncture the shell with the beak, the 

 bird was obliged to get the cy^ at such a point of vantage that a sharp 

 blow could be struck while the egg was so situated that it could not 

 roll awav. 15v having the birds lay in Ideal nests a foot square I found 

 that the egg- was at all times in such close proximity to the bird's body 

 that she was unable to deliver a direct blow that would puncture the 

 shell. A hen cannot break a strong shell that is under her body by 

 striking it with her beak. Xone of these birds were able to eat their eggs 

 in a trap nest one foot square. They were able, and did eat them in 

 the two compartment nest until I cut off the point of the upper mandi- 

 ble. Then they were cured entirely. By the time the beak grew out 

 again the trick was forgotten. ThK operation has been frequently re- 

 commended and I believe it will work in every case, unless the beak is 

 cut on the wrong bird; which is no doubt frequently done. 



