Are they eating their own eggs? Nothing left in the nesting box . . .

If they are eating them, you may see yolk on the beaks. Yes, they will eat everything. There are lots of things to try. What worked for me was ceramic eggs (Golfballs work, too,) gathering eggs often, and increasing the protein in the hen's diet. It can be difficult to break them, they have discovered what we already know, EGGS are DELISH!

 

Keep in mind that your birds won't lay every day. They will skip days now and then, which is a good thing. When my young birds start laying a few of them have ate some eggs but they usually stop soon after. I think sometimes if one gets cracked somehow they might eat it. If possible you could try collecting the eggs soon after they lay them. Or you could get some "roll out nests" then they can't eat them. I keep some golfballs in the nests, don't know if that makes a difference. I wouldn't bother messing around with their protein level. That doesn't have anything to do with it. Layers need a constant 16-17% protein and don't need it changed as a fix for this and that like so many people recommend. Good luck to you.

 

I saw a suggestion on another thread for trying to figure out which girls are laying to use a wild game camera in the nesting area. They aren't to expensive (we were looking into getting one to figure out what was happening to our chicks last year, turns out it was a feral cat) and can have multiple uses, watch for predators, see who's laying, see who's eating the eggs or even just for fun

 

My chickens have accidentally broken an egg and eaten it but they don't purposefully break them to eat them (we have a chicken cam). Are you sure that's not whats happening? They only do it once a month at most. If you don't see wet slimy wood chips then they might not have layed for that day.

PS. You'll never save money with chickens for eggs. If you factor compost value in then maybe...