Dropped an egg and my chickens scarfed it down...

[bax_attack]

This morning I had my hands full with 5 eggs and I accidentally dropped one. It hit the concrete and within seconds all four of my chickens were swarming around it gobbling it down. I took up the egg shell to they wouldn't associate the broken shell with a treat, but left the yolk and white for them to eat.

Could this cause problems with my flock starting to canibalize their own eggs? I've given them some left over scrambled eggs before with some shell crushed up in it, but never in raw egg form that is recognizable as an egg. Hopefully my ladies don't start figuring out that those things they lay are delicious...

 

[johnsons-r-us]

No don't worry! When I get a cracked egg or a couple of times it looked "iffy" I just intentionally toss them down on the ground and let them eat it...shell and all. Why waste them? I don't do it in the coop.....but they eat them up. I have not had any chickens eat the eggs in the nests....and I've read on here it's not a worry to feed them eggs. So far, so good.

 

[speckledhen]

No, that won't start them on the road to breaking and eating their eggs in the nest. If one breaks in the nest from a thin shell, yes, they'll eat it, but none of mine have ever actually worked to break open an egg and eat it.

 

[lazypifarm]

Mine never had either, though we've had an occasional broken egg that they ate. I always imagine them saying to each other, "OMG! Guys, we've been laying SANDWICHES!"

 

[33yardbirds]

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[spacecowgirl]

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[Nonny]

I posted the same question many months ago after I dropped an egg and the girls swarmed it and scoffed it down quick smart. They have never ever tried to egg their own eggs aside from that accident, even leaving the shellless one that was laid in the poop tray one night.