Cannibal "Easter Egger" help!

[sharalyn]

my one and only Hen has become a Cannibal. She does not lay at a consistent time of day and by the time I check she has devoured her egg. We have not had an egg for ourselves in weeks. Any suggestions?

 

[mnferalkitty]

I have found that in my flock if a chicken eats eggs it is because something is wrong with the egg usualy it is thin shelled or deformed something along that nature. Mkae sure she is getting protien and calcium

 

[dainerra]

how many other chickens do you have? Is she alone? It's also possible that she doesn't feel safe - I've seen hens break eggs before if they are over-crowded. It's also possible that if she is alone that she is just scared. They are flock animals and don't do well alone.

Is there any evidence left? As mnferelkitty said, usually the only eggs eaten are those with thin or weak shells.
Basically, more info!

how old is she? diet? other birds? are the signs of broken shells/shellless eggs/nothing at all?

 

[sharalyn]

occasionally they are thin shelled but I feed her lay mash pellets and crushed oyster shells and of course random fresh veggies and fruit

 

[sharalyn]

she is my only hen. She is three years old. I raised her from one day old. I feed her lay mash pellets, crushed oyster shells and misc. fresh veggies and fruit and occasional horse grain. She is closed in a wood house with my two dwarf goats at night but she has her own upstairs with six nesting boxes lined with straw. I block her off to the upstairs because she started laying down stairs and the goats would emerge in the morning with yolk dripping off them!. She spends the day in a large moveable dog run on the ground with weeds , under oak trees.

 

[sharalyn]

oops, and the eggs she eats have one quarter sized hole with the entire contents gone. She does not eat much of the shell

 

[dainerra]

hmm. I've never seen a chicken only make one hole and get the contents out. Sounds more like you have an egg-sucker predator

 

[dracoe19]

I agree with the predator. When one of my hens eats an eggs they devour the whole thing. It could be a snake or a weasel maybe.

 

[dainerra]

dracoe, that is what I was thinking. I've had birds before who will eat an egg (usually one that got cracked in the nest) and they ate EVERYTHING. The only way I knew an egg was there was because of some yolk/mess in the straw.
First thing that comes to mind is a skunk. I know that they are often egg-suckers. So will dogs, cats, even squirrels!

 

[jojobobo61]

You should be able to stop this by blowing out the inside of an egg and filling it with mustard, then put the egg in the nest and when she tries to eat it, it will tast bad and she wont want to eat eggs anymore! Hope this works! It has worked for my freind before!


best wishes,
josephine