Egg Eater

[The Eggplant]

I have a mixed flock of 8 pullets we got as newborn chicks in mid-march. A few of them have recently started laying. They free range around my yard with compost and garden beds during the day, and we started mixing a layer crumble into the chick crumble. Most of the eggs they've laid so far have been nice, hard shelled eggs. Yesterday, I found a completely shell-less egg - I didn't think much of it as they are just now reaching the point of lay. Today, I found my biggest girl, Lady Gray, in the nesting box with an egg I'm fairly certain she laid (a nice, hard shelled brown egg), and another light colored, thin shelled egg that she had clearly pecked a hole in and was eating the contents of that egg! She had egg yolk all the way up past her eye. I shooed her away, gathered the good egg, and threw some of the soft pine shavings in the nesting box over the gooey egg to keep her from eating it until I could get back out there to clean it up.

Some info about my coop/run: The coop is built into the run several feet off the ground, and the nesting boxes are floor level with the coop, but there is a little "lip" they have to step over to get into the nesting boxes that keeps them a little separate from the coop. There are 2 wooden eggs in each nesting box also. They have roosting bars above the nesting boxes in the coop. The run is small, but I let them out every morning to free range around the yard, and they get all the veggie trimmings from our garden.

How concerned do I need to be? I mean, the egg she was eating had a very thin shell.

 

[nchls school]

Don't be overly concerned-yet. Malformed eggs are often eaten, but it usually does not lead to egg eating. But watch to see if it continues.

 

[aart]

and they get all the veggie trimmings from our garden.

What is their normal chicken feed?
Sometimes it's good to cut out all extras so as not to dilute nutrition.

Gather eggs frequently to keep them from eating the sofites.
Clean up broken eggs asap.
I have pieces of vinyl in bottom of nests, so I can quickly lift the whole mess out.
Have an extra piece for replacement while I clean and dry the soiled one.