Egg eater

[Cierrascoop]

What is the best way to figure out which one of my hens is eating eggs?
My OEGB was laying all over the property a while back and I'd occasionally find shells and assumed a predator had gotten to them before I did. But today my olive egger who I just recently got laid in the nest box and when I went to collect eggs it had been pecked and half eaten.

 

[Lay-A Organic]

You should keep a close eye if you want to figure that out. A very effective method would be fake eggs. Just make sure to label that they are fake with a marker so you know which are real.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09WKR5HZ4?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

 

[Cierrascoop]

Going off of my or

You should keep a close eye if you want to figure that out. A very effective method would be fake eggs. Just make sure to label that they are fake with a marker so you know which are real.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09WKR5HZ4?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

Fake eggs are a good idea. I can keep a closer eye over the weekends but through the week is much harder. Hopefully I can figure it out soon however. I only have five actual layers right now and two are bantams that don't lay often lol so I'm getting 2-3 most days. With an egg eater I won't be getting many.

 

[SilverBirds]

Look at each chickens beak and chest feathers for any spots of yellow or sticky from eating the eggs. You can try Isolating each bird help determine who the culprit is. You can also put a camera in your coop pointing at the nesting box.

It's important to break the bad habit as soon as possible. The egg eater will continue eating eggs and she may teach her sisters to do the same.

 

[Cierrascoop]

Look at each chickens beak and chest feathers for any spots of yellow or sticky from eating the eggs. You can try Isolating each bird help determine who the culprit is. You can also put a camera in your coop pointing at the nesting box.

It's important to break the bad habit as soon as possible. The egg eater will continue eating eggs and she may teach her sisters to do the same.

I am going to do that very directly. Going off of my original clan I can narrow it down to three possible suspects of my nine. Would an egg eater always eat her own eggs as well? My OEGB would lay all over but not all of hers were broken and eaten. Most the kids and I would find, but there would be a couple a week that we would find eaten. I just assumed opposums or skunks would take the free meal after dark when we couldn't find any. But if she would definitely eat them everytime I could also rule her out. Leaving my barred rock and my NHR.

 

[Cierrascoop]

Look at each chickens beak and chest feathers for any spots of yellow or sticky from eating the eggs. You can try Isolating each bird help determine who the culprit is. You can also put a camera in your coop pointing at the nesting box.

It's important to break the bad habit as soon as possible. The egg eater will continue eating eggs and she may teach her sisters to do the same.

I REALLY hope we can figure it out before that happens. I love all of them so much. But I can't have the eggs eaten

 

[SilverBirds]

I am going to do that very directly. Going off of my original clan I can narrow it down to three possible suspects of my nine. Would an egg eater always eat her own eggs as well? My OEGB would lay all over but not all of hers were broken and eaten. Most the kids and I would find, but there would be a couple a week that we would find eaten. I just assumed opposums or skunks would take the free meal after dark when we couldn't find any. But if she would definitely eat them everytime I could also rule her out. Leaving my barred rock and my NHR.

They'll often eat their own eggs and the eggs of others. The eggs will be eaten the majority of the time, though they may be whole if hen isn't hungry or isn't interested at the moment. It is also possible that they are only eating eggs of certain colors or size because they don't realize other eggs also hold the same gooey deliciousness inside.

If/when you catch the culprit there are a few different ways you can break her.

Fake eggs will probably be your best bet. You can either buy ceramic ones or use golf balls to place in the nests. The egg eater will attempt to eat the eggs but to no avail. It's best to keep the fake eggs in the nest for a few weeks and collect eggs as often as possible.

If she gets smart and figures out the difference between real and fake eggs, you can try filling the eggs with mustard (which most chickens hate). Take a raw egg and drill a whole in the bottom and let the contents drain out. Then fill the egg with mustard and place it back into the nest. When the hen breaks it open and tries to eat it, she gets a nasty tasting surprise. You may need to fill more than one egg to get her to finally stop.