Chicken eating eggs....what do I do??

[3scorpios]

I searched and could not find a thread on this subject, so forgive me if I'm posting a repeat.

I just got my chickens yesterday (six hens, about 5 months old). Tonight as they were going into the coop I noticed one of the hens was eating the remains of an egg inside the coop. Does this mean she will always eat eggs? Is there a way to break her of this habit?

 

[Hedera]

Hasnt happened to me (thank god) butI heard you blow the eggs and put mustard in them, they wont like the taste and will stop. Then again, maybe they would like it.....

 

[extraordinaryfowl]

Quote:
I would try this - I stock up my nestboxes with golf balls and plastic easter eggs (also to encourage them to go broody). When I moved my hens to a new coop, it stopped, then when I moved the same egg-eating hens back a few months later they never started again besides the occasional chance egg that gets laid in the run and gets broken (by being stepped on, smacking the wood, etc..).

Chickens don't have heat sensors on their tongue, so hot foods don't work but mustard or maybe just mud would work

MW

 

[3scorpios]

Quote:
I would try this - I stock up my nestboxes with golf balls and plastic easter eggs (also to encourage them to go broody). When I moved my hens to a new coop, it stopped, then when I moved the same egg-eating hens back a few months later they never started again besides the occasional chance egg that gets laid in the run and gets broken (by being stepped on, smacking the wood, etc..).

Chickens don't have heat sensors on their tongue, so hot foods don't work but mustard or maybe just mud would work

MW

Thank you. Since golf balls in the nest is a lot easier than mustard in an egg (and much less messy) I think I'll give that a try. Since I just got these chickens I don't know if the egg-eating is an established habit or a new occurrence. By the time I saw it the only thing left of the egg was a small piece of shell.

 

[JoePa]

If you got a chicken that eats eggs - cull it - before it shows the others that eating eggs is the in thing -

 

[NovaAman]

were they eating the egg in the nest box or on the coop floor? Maybe it just got laid in the wrong spot and hit the floor and cracked. I was collecting the neighbors eggs and I accidently dropped an egg and that was all it took. The chickens were on it like white on rice. BUT, they did not touch any of the eggs while they were in the nest boxes.

 

[extraordinaryfowl]

Another thing - make sure they are getting enough calcium so their eggshells aren't thin and they don't break as soon as they are laid.

 

[3scorpios]

Quote:
I was able to collect two eggs before the eating incident and the shells were very hard, so I don't think the eggs are soft. I am giving them oyster shells with their food to make sure they are getting calcium.