Are they cannibals?

[Norman Gaggini]

Hi. I am very concerned about chicken behavior. My chickens just started laying on November 1st. One egg, a day later 2 eggs, eventually 3 then 4 etc up until 4 days ago when it was 12 then 11 then 3 and this morning 2. I noticed in the egg box that it was slimy in the bottom, like egg white. Is it possible that the chickens are cannibalizing their own eggs?

 

[CluckerFamily]

Welcome to BYC!
Yes, chickens will eat their own eggs.

 

[Callender Girl]

Chickens are opportunists and will, when given the opportunity, eat their own eggs or anyone else's. You didn't say if you also found some shell, which is the real giveaway that someone is an egg eater; one of my girls actually walked out of the coop with half a shell still stuck to her breast, brazen thing!

Egg eating needs to be discouraged as quickly as possible before everyone thinks it's a good idea. Many people, me included, use fake eggs in the nest boxes so that when they peck, there's no payoff.

There are also nest boxes designed so that the eggs roll backward and down so the hens can't reach them. I usually check nest boxes as often as possible, especially when everyone is laying -- and right now most of them are taking a winter break. Sometimes, they don't intentionally break them, but as many as three of my girls will all choose the same nest box at once and accidents are bound to happen then.

Good luck getting things under control. And, welcome to the community!

 

[HappyClucker7]

Chickens will definitely eat their own eggs. They probably broke one by accident, then realized it tasted good.
You have to make sure to collect the eggs quickly, before they even have a chance to eat them. Go out several times per day and get the eggs.
You can also put fake eggs into the nest boxes. The chickens won't be able to eat them, and they will lose interest.

 

[Aapomp831]

Eating their eggs is not cannibalism; but they will cannibalize each other if anyone has an open wound.
You need to find out who is doing it and they need to be culled. In my opinion, once a chicken starts eating their own eggs they will never stop and the other chickens will pick up on it and start doing the same.

 

[3KillerBs]

Chickens are supreme omnivores and will literally eat anything that doesn't eat them first.

 

[aart]

Most likely the broken egg was thin or soft shelled,
common with new layers,
got stepped on and broken thus fair game for eating.

 

[swampfox440]

 

[Aapomp831]

Most likely the broken egg was thin or soft shelled,
common with new layers,
got stepped on and broken thus fair game for eating.

Not necessarily. I had to cull a chicken that would jump up and try to peck the egg as it was in my hand. She was the only one I ever caught in the act; and when she was separated for a few days they egg eating stopped. I always would check the remnants of the shell left behind, and they were hard. The other times I found peck marks in perfectly good eggs - needed to be thrown out. I cull IMMEDIATELY now. No exceptions.

 

[aart]

Not necessarily.

Why I said 'most likely'