Can bored chickens eat their own eggs?

[RM Teacher]

I have read some suggestions about how to stop chicken eat their own eggs. I wonder if bored chicken could eat their own eggs.
I have only a rather small patch of land were my chickens can run around, could it be that the restricted area makes them bored and therefore eat their own eggs? Any suggestions / comments?

 

[CrazyTalk]

What are you feeding them?

In my experience, consistent egg eating is usually nutritional (sporadic is usually a result of the occasional egg being broken by a clumsy hen).

 

[RM Teacher]

Hi CrazyTalk,
I feed them Layer Mash, which apparently has all the nutrition hens require to lay good eggs. It could be of course some clumsyness of the chicken as it happened only occasionally, but I thought maybe boredom was the reason. What do you think?

 

[CrazyTalk]

What breed are they (and how big?). I ask because the 13-16% protein layer feeds were designed for light leghorn/sex-link type birds, and for some larger heritage breeds the protein percentage isn't enough (some are fine though). Sometimes switching to a flock raiser type feed and leaving oyster shell for them (or a higher protein % layer feed) fixes some protein related issues (egg eating, feather picking, etc).

Do you feed a lot of treats?

We're also just coming out of winter here (not sure where you are) and sometimes cold nights/mornings can cause eggs to freeze enough to crack, and usually those get eaten. Generally, if an egg is damaged, they're going to eat it.

I'm just slow to ascribe things like boredom to chickens - there's not a whole lot of higher thought going on - almost everything is instinctual - and if instinct is telling them to peck at eggs, there's usually a reason in my experience.


How small of a space are we talking? Coop size? Run Size? What's your setup like?