- Apr 16, 2014
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Today is filled with mixed emotions for me. I found a perfect little egg in the coop (right next to the nest boxes, working on that...) and thought it was my first from the 3 chickens I raised since April. My happiness turned to horror when I saw all of them sharing in eating a shell-less egg that was laid in the run. I don't know who laid it, or when, or who instigated eating it or what to do now. Is checking for eggs frequently throughout the day the answer? I was only looking twice a day up until now but i never accounted for the possibility of an egg with no real shell to protect it from their greedy little beaks... it was practically begging to be eaten. I'm hopeful because they didn't break open the one with the nice hard shell.
Chickens commonly eat shell-less eggs, ime it really doesn't seem to lead to real egg eating, so hopefully your girls won't make it a habit either. Also keeping fake eggs in the nesting boxes especially and doing other things to help prevent egg eating in general (nice article from the Learning Center) 
I never saw them mate and never heard a crow but if the egg is fertile then that is a pretty clear answer. Here's a photo of it... my finger looks scary because I tweaked the image for clarity.
