Help! This is like my worst nightmare with chickens other than maybe a lice infestation. We just blended all our girls together three days ago. So far so good. We've got 12 that are laying age (but typically only got 6 a day) and 4 coming into age. We have 4 nestboxes eventually we will have 6. The first day two of the hens laid on the floor near the nestbox but the next day 4 laid in the nestbox, none on the ground. Today I go out and there were only 2 eggs, one in each box. I was feeding and cleaning up. In that time someone went inside the nestbox part of the coop and laid an egg. When I went back to check once more my EE and BO were eating it! I picked it up and I'm wondering why they ate it, and how to stop it. It had a shell but it was very cracked all over. It was held together by an inner membrane thing. I'm not sure if the shell did not form all the way or if they cracked it by eating it. I quickly removed it and looked for any signs of other eggs and did not see anymore.
Was it possible the egg was just not fully formed and they ate it? Is that common?
If it was a good egg and they ate it anyway (but did not eat the three from this morning....) how do I stop that?
Was it possible the egg was just not fully formed and they ate it? Is that common?
If it was a good egg and they ate it anyway (but did not eat the three from this morning....) how do I stop that?
