Egg eaters!

[Janet Pesaturo]

It's a normal behavior and will pass when egg shells firm up and no longer get damaged in the nest. No need to try and "break" the culprit or cull the bird. This too shall pass. Have had chickens for 38 yrs and never had an "egg eater"...they will all eat eggs opportunistically when they are cracked or broken open. It's important that they do to keep the nests clean..it's instinctive.

I totally agree that they eat cracked eggs opportunistically, as I have seen this myself, without it developing into pecking open normal eggs. But occasionally they do learn to peck open firmly shelled eggs, and begin eating them regularly. Enough people have seen this happen, so I think it's undeniable.

 

[Icedangel11]

I had two hens try and eat their eggs.

I blew out an egg and filled the shell with mustard. They thought they were in for a TREAT when I rolled down that egg for them. One or two bites and I don't think I'd ever seen a hen whose feathers were that ruffled.

Since then it hasn't been an issue. Occasionally I'll roll out a mustard filled egg just in case and boy oh boy they do NOT want it. I tried a good egg once and they still wanted nothing to do with it.

 

[Beekissed]

I totally agree that they eat cracked eggs opportunistically, as I have seen this myself, without it developing into pecking open normal eggs. But occasionally they do learn to peck open firmly shelled eggs, and begin eating them regularly. Enough people have seen this happen, so I think it's undeniable.

I wouldn't agree that's it's undeniable, I would agree that people are often confused by what they are seeing based on the myth of the "egg eater". Three generations of keeping chickens in this family spanning over a 100 years, all different breeds and large and small flocks, and we've never had a dedicated egg eater, so I'm naturally skeptical of what people are seeing there.

I think the stories are based on tales just like the one that started this thread and are taken as fact of an "egg eater". Egg eating typically happens most often twice a year...as chickens are coming into lay in the spring and going out of lay during the molt. If a person just waits that period ends and the evil "egg eater" fades into the flock, never to be seen again until the next time shells are fragile and easily damaged.

As this time frame usually last a week or two and even longer, by the time someone discovers eggs are being eaten, asks someone else what to do about it and then implements a "egg eating breaker" solution, the chicken's shells are already starting to firm up and the egg eating miraculously responds to the supposed solution. It's all coincidental~ and fanciful~ but not entirely factual.

Here's a little experiment to do the next time one fears they have an egg eater....don't supplement with calcium, proteins or any other nutrient, wait it out and watch what happens. No tricks, wooden eggs, mustard eggs or other such flotsam....just...wait. See if it doesn't go away all by itself and then you'll know it's seasonal, normal, and temporary.

I'm not saying it's impossible to have a rogue chicken that will prey on eggs but that's the exception, I've never seen it or heard of it in more experienced owner's flocks and if it were that common chickens would never have survived for thousands of years because they would have eaten any chance of their own offspring surviving and quickly went extinct.

 

[distincthead]

You're such a font of great information and opinions, Beekissed! I've often wondered about this myself. I had an "egg eating situation" a number of years ago, was too busy to get around to implementing a lot of the proposed solutions I read about, and it solved itself. Right now I'm finding eaten eggs once in a great while since springtime, and they are the thinnest of them all. The hard shelled eggs seem never to be broken open. I'm thinking they crack upon laying, having been stepped on or something, and then the opportunistic eating occurs.

 

[Janet Pesaturo]

I wouldn't agree that's it's undeniable, I would agree that people are often confused by what they are seeing based on the myth of the "egg eater". Three generations of keeping chickens in this family spanning over a 100 years, all different breeds and large and small flocks, and we've never had a dedicated egg eater, so I'm naturally skeptical of what people are seeing there.

I think the stories are based on tales just like the one that started this thread and are taken as fact of an "egg eater". Egg eating typically happens most often twice a year...as chickens are coming into lay in the spring and going out of lay during the molt. If a person just waits that period ends and the evil "egg eater" fades into the flock, never to be seen again until the next time shells are fragile and easily damaged.

As this time frame usually last a week or two and even longer, by the time someone discovers eggs are being eaten, asks someone else what to do about it and then implements a "egg eating breaker" solution, the chicken's shells are already starting to firm up and the egg eating miraculously responds to the supposed solution. It's all coincidental~ and fanciful~ but not entirely factual.

Here's a little experiment to do the next time one fears they have an egg eater....don't supplement with calcium, proteins or any other nutrient, wait it out and watch what happens. No tricks, wooden eggs, mustard eggs or other such flotsam....just...wait. See if it doesn't go away all by itself and then you'll know it's seasonal, normal, and temporary.

I'm not saying it's impossible to have a rogue chicken that will prey on eggs but that's the exception, I've never seen it or heard of it in more experienced owner's flocks and if it were that common chickens would never have survived for thousands of years because they would have eaten any chance of their own offspring surviving and quickly went extinct.

I also suspect is rarer than what people think, and while I have not had it happen in my flock, it did happen to a good friend, and ALL the eggs were being eaten. She did not jump the gun - she waited for weeks and and put them down only after much observation of several hens eating the eggs. So I know it happens on occasion, and multiple flock members can be involved, probably indicating learning by observation.

However, I don't think the persistence of the wild ancestor of the domestic chicken tells us anything about how common or uncommon egg eating is in domestic chickens. Their wild ancestors live in strikingly different circumstances: small flocks of a few birds which roam many acres of land, where each hen is free to find her own secret nesting spot. Domestic chickens are usually confined, and hens lay their eggs in boxes for the rest of the flock to see all day long, until the flock keeper removes them. They have much less to do with their time and are forced to stay in close proximity of each other, putting them at risk for the various types of canabilism that people observe.

 

[AlaskaGrown]

It's a normal behavior and will pass when egg shells firm up and no longer get damaged in the nest. No need to try and "break" the culprit or cull the bird. This too shall pass. Have had chickens for 38 yrs and never had an "egg eater"...they will all eat eggs opportunistically when they are cracked or broken open. It's important that they do to keep the nests clean..it's instinctive.

It was just really unfortunate that the seller did not let me know that one of the hens I had purchased was a suspected egg eater. I supplemented their diet with egg shells and oyster shells, but nothing seemed to work. Before I parted with the hen I had 12 chickens and was getting 1 - 3 eggs a day with 3 or more being cracked or partially eaten! Thankfully the other hens did not catch on and our friend willingly knew what they were getting into with the hen.

 

[AlaskaGrown]

I posted some pictures of the rollaway inserts that I made for my nesting boxes here

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...box-no-shell-or-and-membrane/20#post_13416662

if anyone is interested

 

[TatorBaker]

I had an egg eater last summer and couldn't figure out who it was, so each day i put 5 of the 15 hens in separate dog kennels placed inside the coop ( So they could still feel like their at home). I made them stay in there the full 24 hours with food and water provided and if there was a laid egg in there the next day still in tact, I let that one out and put a new one in there. I definitely dwindled it down to one culprit, Flippy! I kept her separated for a little while and I used golf balls and drained eggs and filled them with Mustard and chili powder, Lets just say she's one of my best layers now

 

[jesseakhunter]

I was told to clip their beaks so the top part of the beak doesn't have a point anymore and now they can't crack eggs for quite sometime and will just stop attempting to eat them

 

[JustOrpsNC]

Very good ideas here