broken empty shells

[stephdownsouth]

Hello! This morning I found 4 crushed/empty egg shells in the lay boxes. No egg remains like when they are soft shelled or sat upon....could this be rats? What can be done??

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Hi, welcome to BYC!

It could definitely be rats... or chickens.

I suggest collecting your eggs instead of leaving them over night. And set traps where the girls can't access them. Rats won't only eat eggs. But they will also eat chicks and even eat chickens while they are still alive!

 

[Spiderduck]

Well my hens sometimes break thier eggs (more common now with young ones)
They eat the entire thing. Maybe they ate it and left the shell behind??
I have rats around here and they dont eat the eggs as far as im aware.

 

[stephdownsouth]

Hi, welcome to BYC!

It could definitely be rats... or chickens.

I suggest collecting your eggs instead of leaving them over night. And set traps where the girls can't access them. Rats won't only eat eggs. But they will also eat chicks and even eat chickens while they are still alive!

Thank you!! I normally collect eggs at the end of each day, but we were dealing with Hurricane Irma, so they were on their own! This is the first I have found such a thing, so hopefully it was indeed the young hens and not rats!

 

[stephdownsouth]

Well my hens sometimes break thier eggs (more common now with young ones)
They eat the entire thing. Maybe they ate it and left the shell behind??
I have rats around here and they dont eat the eggs as far as im aware.

Thank you!! I normally collect eggs at the end of each day, but we were dealing with Hurricane Irma, so they were on their own! This is the first I have found such a thing, so hopefully it was indeed the young hens and not rats...although I know we have those, too...

 

[Spiderduck]

Hope the hurricane is not doing any or very little damage to your area.

But i think its rare a one off maybe.

I normally collect eggs morning. Afternoon around three and then at lock up

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Thank you!! I normally collect eggs at the end of each day, but we were dealing with Hurricane Irma, so they were on their own! This is the first I have found such a thing, so hopefully it was indeed the young hens and not rats!

So glad you guys are OK so far!

Sometimes if the birds have done it you cans see egg on their face. With a hurricane going on they might be stressed, laying brittle eggs or was just a happy accident for them. When mine happen that's usually the case (happy accidents.. yes, there is often shell left behind but sometimes just a grimy look on the other eggs that didn't break). I make sure and provide hard fake eggs for them to check peck over the next several days. Happy accident is my actual guess more than rats. Because rats will mostly go after the feed. I have known rats and keep the eggs I'm going to feed back to the animals out there and they really haven't learned that behavior yet. Plus I set baited (not poison) traps. They also haven't yet started going after my hens and chicks. But I have see threads labeled rat wars where that is exactly what has happened. That being said it's never been a whole nest, so your egg eater if that's what it is may have discovered the yummy-ness and went for it and may go for it again! If you don't have wooden or ceramic fake eggs I highly recommend them.

That being said, there are plenty of other animals that will eat eggs. How open is your coop for other things to get in?