Egg Eating Chicken and I am out of ideas

[House Mouse]

Hello All. I have a Delaware chicken to which I discovered is the culprit of constant egg eating. She waits outside the nesting box and eats the egg faster than I can stop it. I am not one to put down an animal, so I have tried all I have heard of...curtains on nesting boxes; checking often to take out eggs; fake eggs; golf balls; a clean coop; cod liver oil or mustard in egg shells; lots of treats for the girls; and a large run. I cannot use the nesting boxes that have the eggs roll out to a safe holding area due to how we constructed the coop.

I have been removing her from the coop every day leaving her outside to which is ok for now, but winter is coming. She has been out for two weeks, and I tried leaving her in yesterday but she immediately was back into her old routine of stalking the nesting boxes when another chicken was in them and got to an egg before me.

Is there anything else someone can think of for me to try?

 

[cstronks]

Have you caged her inside the coop in like a dog crate and put here somewhere that she can see the eggs but not get to them? This could work.

 

[House Mouse]

No, I have not tried that. I have a 4'x6' coop, not sure if a dog crate would fit. Maybe if i put some of the fake eggs outside with her, she can peck at them and see they don't break open.

 

[cstronks]

That's an idea. I'm not really sure what else you could try. Sometimes the solitary confinement works well, because the birds adapt to life in a cage and more or less continue on the new routine once released. I would just leave her out of the coop though. This will probably work better (for now, or until it gets cold).

 

[hennible]

I have roll away nesting boxes that I get at inside the coop about the same size as average boxes... Could be a back up plan maybe. If your interested I could try to explain them or post a picture.

 

[Free Feather]

Just let her have them. I would say she has more of a right to them than we do.

 

[MarieCallandar]

Ok I had the same problem 2 of my girls got into a habit of eating the occasional soft shelled egg. So I supplemented there diet with a crap ton of calcium. Oyster shells smooshed up egg shells I just lace there food with this every day. Ever since I have not had a problem because the eggs are to tough for them to peck into that they no longer do it

 

[MarieCallandar]

Sometimes you can't change the behavior, so I would recommend tough egg shells

 

[hennible]

I've also known people who kill the egg eater or eaters before more birds pick up the habit. It's a shame to lose a lot of eggs to egg eating, I prefer to eat them over my birds getting them. After all that's why I have chickens.

 

[hennible]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/six-tips-on-breaking-your-egg-eater
Ok this is better then culling the bird.