Egg Eating and Killing unhatched chicks

[chickenMamee]

Advice needed! I have a hen that I caught eating eggs from a broody hen’s nest. She has destroyed two clutches of unhatched chicks and eaten newly hatched eggs as well. This is all new behavior. The broody hen has tried twice in a row to hatch her eggs and I couldn’t figure out what exactly was happening. At first I thought it was the sitting hen that was doing it even though she has successfully hatched and raised several broods in the past few years.
I caught this other hen today on the broody hen’s nest with a busted egg and yolk on her beak. The broody hen was squawking and freaking out and I heard her so that’s how I finally found the real culprit! The bad hen is last in pecking order but hasn’t ever displayed this type of aggression towards nesting hens or eggs. Even stranger is that there’s another sitting hen in the box next to thisnest and that bad hen hasn’t bothered this hen or her eggs.
Any advice or insight to her behavior is welcomed! Thanks!

 

[SurferchickinSB]

Advice needed! I have a hen that I caught eating eggs from a broody hen’s nest. She has destroyed two clutches of unhatched chicks and eaten newly hatched eggs as well. This is all new behavior. The broody hen has tried twice in a row to hatch her eggs and I couldn’t figure out what exactly was happening. At first I thought it was the sitting hen that was doing it even though she has successfully hatched and raised several broods in the past few years.
I caught this other hen today on the broody hen’s nest with a busted egg and yolk on her beak. The broody hen was squawking and freaking out and I heard her so that’s how I finally found the real culprit! The bad hen is last in pecking order but hasn’t ever displayed this type of aggression towards nesting hens or eggs. Even stranger is that there’s another sitting hen in the box next to thisnest and that bad hen hasn’t bothered this hen or her eggs.
Any advice or insight to her behavior is welcomed! Thanks!

Wow, that’s pretty bad! Hope you get this situation under control.

 

[BlueBaby]

Maybe you could put the bad hen in a separate pen or cage for time out? Or is there a way that you can section off the hen sitting on the nest that the bad hen is causing the problem?

 

[CHickychikchik]

I have read that once a hen learns that they can crack open and eat eggs that it becomes a bad habit. So what you do is buy the ceramic eggs and set it up so these are the only eggs this chicken can peck. When she pecks them and they don’t break for a period of time then she’ll stop trying.