Has 'egg attacks' been addressed?

[FourHensNoPens]

We have four hens who are seven months old. We raised them from one-week-old chicks.
They live in a coop surrounded by a Run. The coop's nesting area supports
all four but is designed with only two side-by-side nesting boxes separated
by a very low (like 2-3" high) divider.

Three of our birds are grey Saffire Plymouth Rocks; our fourth bird, who only has
started laying in the past 4-6 weeks, and only soft-shelled eggs thus far,
is a Black Copper Marans. She started out very shy as a chick, and now
as an adult, she tends to be the loudest of the four, especially around
feeding time, though she continues to be skittish, frequently hanging
back behind the other three during snack time through the chicken
wire fence. Unlike the others, she also resists being petted.

Two of the Saffire Plymouth Rock hens wait for the Black Copper Marans
to lay an egg (one of them sometimes poking her head underneath the Marans) and
they are attacking the eggs leaving nothing but yokes.

Please help. We're not sure what to do. Very difficult to separate the birds
24/7.

Here's a picture of our Coop and Run along with our four hens,
Maui; Noir; Fracass; and Midnight (the Black Copper Marans):
http://tnpllc1.homestead.com/CHICKEN-DADDY-Page2.html?_=1647363231934

Apologies if this topic already has been addressed. We did a cursory
search under 'egg attacks' and 'egg damage' and nothing came up.

Cheers,

Ralph & Kendra
Petaluma, Calif.

 

[Brooks_]

So, egg eating?

 

[nuthatched]

They are eating the egg's? What do they eat, they may lack protein. You need to break them of this habit or dispatch them

 

[Brooks_]

You need to break them of this habit

On that: I've seen ceramic eggs and blown eggs filled with mustard to use as breakers.

 

[nuthatched]

On that: I've seen ceramic eggs and blown eggs filled with mustard to use as breakers.

Yep! Or blow them out and fill with Yellow dish soap.

 

[NatJ]

Apologies if this topic already has been addressed. We did a cursory
search under 'egg attacks' and 'egg damage' and nothing came up.

"Egg eating" is a common term for this.

The chickens might need more protein in their diet (chick starter has more protein than most layer feeds, so that might be a good food to try.)

The chickens might need more calcium (a dish of oyster shells, available free choice, might help with this-- hens are usually good at eating the right amount.)

It sometimes helps to hang curtains in front of the nestbox, so it is dark inside and harder to see the eggs. (This will not completely solve your problem, but might be one part of a multi-part solution.)

Putting fake eggs in the nest can sometimes help. Right now, they know that pecking an egg makes it break so they can eat the insides. If there are fake eggs in the nest, they can peck an "egg" and find that it's a waste of effort. (Also not a complete solution, but might be part of a solution.)

I would usually advise that you collect eggs frequently, so the eggs are not sitting around for them to eat-- but since the chickens are watching for the egg to be laid and eating it immediately, that will obviously not help here!

Since you have hens sitting right there watching for the egg to be laid, you might try giving them other things to think about-- maybe a pile of new bedding to scratch around, or a clump of sod to destroy, or anything else that might keep them busy.

Assuming you do not want to butcher the egg eaters, I do not think you will find a simple one-step solution to the problem you've described. So I suggest you try as many things as you reasonably can of what I've suggested, and/or what other people have suggested. Most of them are things that can be tried at the same time without interfering with each other.

...blown eggs filled with mustard to use as breakers.

I've seen accounts of hens that ate the mustard, and did not stop eating eggs.
Example:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/egg-eating-chicken-ate-two-mustard-filled-eggs-help.932373/

 

[Isadora]

For a permanent solution, you might consider rollaway nest boxes.

 

[Brooks_]

I've seen accounts of hens that ate the mustard, and did not stop eating eggs.
Example:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/egg-eating-chicken-ate-two-mustard-filled-eggs-help.932373/

If we discount everything that didn't work for some, what is left?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

If we discount everything that didn't work for some, what is left?

They're just saying it isn't a guarantee to have them stop

 

[Brooks_]

They're just saying it isn't a guarantee to have them stop

And I didn't say that it was either.