cracked eggs

rbum

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I have 2 barred rock hens and one seems to be pecking the eggs. She is 7 months now and the last 3 eggs were cracked on the end. Any suggestions?
 
I have 2 barred rock hens and one seems to be pecking the eggs. She is 7 months now and the last 3 eggs were cracked on the end. Any suggestions?

Which end are they cracked on? Can you take a picture of the cracking? Often when it's the end that is cracked it is indicative of impact with the hard surface of a nest box floor when it drops rather than pecking. The way that eggs tend to lay once in the box, on the side, makes the side more of a target for pecking as the chicken can peck straight down onto the egg vs. trying to angle their head to reach at the end(s).
 
Thanks for your help. Can't take pic wife ate the egg worried that it would spoil fast.Maybe tomorrow it will happen again and I will take pic
 
A little more info would help.

What's in the nest boxes? How deep is the material?

I have about 3 inches of pine shavings in mine and they seem to burrow down as deep as they can, which exposes the hard surface. It's a constant battle of refluffing the nest material.

If she's actually pecking the ends of the eggs, might try putting some ceramic eggs (like from Cracker Barrel) in the nest boxes and see if that helps.
 
I've found that putting about 8-10" of pine shavings into a nest box then gets compacted down a lot but provides plenty of cushion. If I put less than that into the box, then they will expose the wooden bottom of the box. The box needs to be deep enough so the shavings/bedding doesn't get all pushed out when they rearrange it to make their nest.

Sometimes hens will test an egg as well, as in "testing your mettle". If an egg isn't going to withstand a light peck in the beginning, then it wouldn't be worth them sitting on it to hatch.
 
Have another cracked egg today
700
 
Something is definitely making entry through the shell - most likely the beak of a bird (is your coop enclosed in such a way other species of birds cannot get in?) - but it *could* be something else. Are all the cracked eggs being found in the same nest box or have then been in multiple boxes over time? If the same box, it may be worth it to inspect the box and be sure there was nothing during construction (ie a stray screw) that has made it's way through the floor or wall of the box in a way that could come into contact with eggs and damage shells.
 
Nest floor is wood and usually put alot of grass down and she pulls it away to the side and sits on the wood with the grass around her.
 
Nest floor is wood and usually put alot of grass down and she pulls it away to the side and sits on the wood with the grass around her.


If she is exposing the wood floor, then you need to put down even more bedding. Your nest box also needs to be deep enough to accept enough bedding material. It takes a LOT of bedding in our boxes to make the hens happy enough that they won't/can't expose the wood floor.
 
An alternative fix to this would be to install a fixed liner or pad and then put your bedding over that so that even if/when she scratches the bedding aside the exposed floor is padded vs. hard.
 
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