Egg eating chicken

[Jstpssng]

Every year about this time I seem to have this problem. The only way that I know is because I will start seeing yolk in the nesting box. I've had about 50% success with placing a golf ball into the nest. (they peck at it and get an unexpected jolt) I've had 100% success curing the rest with my axe, but then I have to start over.

Some sites suggest putting Tabasco sauce on a broken egg... They seem to enjoy that just fine, like I put butter and salt on fresh corn.
Does anybody else have this problem? If so, have you had any success curing it? I'm not sure (yet) who is doing it, but it mostly is a problem just before the fall molt. I have 6 pullets just starting to lay, (4 golden comets, 2 freedom ranger meat hens) 4 barred rocks which are 2 1/2 yo and 2 Americaunas which are 3 1/2... and are laying more than the other 10 combined. Also 2 roosters.
I know that there are places out there specifically about raising chickens and I've been visiting them; but it's nice to ask questions and I haven't joined a new site since 2005.

 

[Scooby074]

Dont have any problems with my girls eating their eggs. They have damaged some from rolling them around, but not from trying to eat them.

Make sure they are getting lots of calcium (like added oyster shells) and GOOD feed.

BackyardChickens.com is a good site with lots of info.

Growing up, my dad's coop had a egg chute designed by my grandfather that would get the eggs to roll away and outside from the girls' laying boxes. An interesting idea that was before my time so unfortunately I never saw it. Half of my girls dont lay in the same place each time anyway, so it wouldnt be effective.

Probably the best advise is frequent checks. The kids are always out there looking for eggs to bring in.

 

[Bird]

I've had 100% success curing the rest with my axe

That was always my Dad's solution.:laughing:

 

[Mousefield]

Dont have any problems with my girls eating their eggs. They have damaged some from rolling them around, but not from trying to eat them.

Make sure they are getting lots of calcium (like added oyster shells) and GOOD feed.

BackyardChickens.com is a good site with lots of info.

Growing up, my dad's coop had a egg chute designed by my grandfather that would get the eggs to roll away and outside from the girls' laying boxes. An interesting idea that was before my time so unfortunately I never saw it. Half of my girls dont lay in the same place each time anyway, so it wouldnt be effective.

Probably the best advise is frequent checks. The kids are always out there looking for eggs to bring in.

As chickens get older they are more prone to lay thin shelled eggs, so as pointed out making sure they get extra calcium is important.
Sometimes if you catch a chicken eating an egg (or whatever is left of it) it may not be the original bird that started eating the egg.

 

[Ed of all trades]

Mom always put them in a little coop that she used for "settin hens". put them in for a week or so and it seemed to work, don't know why. Don't leave the eggs in with her. Ed

 

[SPIKER]

try and check for left over egg on the beaks then start eliminating by separation half into one enclosed area and then separate heads after two or three breaking them down by half it goes quick...

 

[Garycw]

When I was a mischievous kid, I used to break a egg in the hen house. ALL the chickens would dive on it like candy. Other than that they never ate them on there own.

 

[Rustyferrious]

I have at least one egg eater out of 25 hens, not sure which hen(s) it is. They have good and plentiful food, plenty of room, spoiled rotten birds actually. If I check twice a day I don't find any broken eggs, if I skip a day I find them. Almost like they're saying "hey, if you're not going to eat them, we will!"

 

[gwstang]

What type of bedding material are you using in the nest? I use those wood chips in a big bag from TSC and this keep the eggs from accidentally being broken by the fat butt hens. Of course, it doesn't matter if one of them is intentionally breaking the eggs to eat. The wood chips keep the eggs clean too. All 6 of my hens lay in one nest even though there are several available, so I only fill the one with the chips anymore. I use to use hay but they pushed the hay out too much and the bottom of the box would be exposed and one of the lard butts would surely break one or two eggs. Good luck with the problem.

 

[Rustyferrious]

I use wood chips too. I tried straw but they just scratch it out of the nests so now I just use it on the floor of the coop. My birds also like to lay in the same nesting box, even though they have twelve to choose from. Our smallest bird, a tiny white bantam frizzle, named Phyllis by the wife, is a brooder. We don't even have a rooster. Picture a small ball of feathers the size of a softball sitting atop a mound of 18 or so eggs, trying to keep them warm. It's ridiculous. But try to take one, she screams bloody murder and pecks like mad. We did have a rooster once, so we let her hatch a couple eggs - of course the both turned out to be roosters. Beautiful mutts, a cross between a buff orph hen and a bantam cochin, but oh god did they crow. They both went to freezer camp.