Egg eating chickens

[Chicken Boy 101]

I hadn't got an egg for a while and I did I didn't think anything was wrong but today I went to the coop and found an egg so I set it on ground to clean there water dish and when I set it on the ground all of my chickens jumped at it and they all ate it. If anybody has ant answers to stop this please tell me.

 

[Sipplchicks]

If this is the first time mabey they were excited for a treat. I would check for eggs often. Don't set them on the ground of course. Did she lay in her nesting box? Hopefully it was just a one time thing.

 

[alexa009]

Well they are not eating the eggs when they lay them so they are probably used to you having food every time you sit down and are assuming the egg is supposed to be food. If you ever do notice you are missing eggs in the nesting box I would recommend separating the one that is doing it or putting ceramic eggs in the coop then they will leave the real ones alone expecting them to be like the ceramic eggs.

 

[Chicken Boy 101]

If this is the first time mabey they were excited for a treat. I would check for eggs often. Don't set them on the ground of course. Did she lay in her nesting box? Hopefully it was just a one time thing.

They are laying in the nesting box and I have found some yolk in the nesting box too

 

[Chicken Boy 101]

Well they are not eating the eggs when they lay them so they are probably used to you having food every time you sit down and are assuming the egg is supposed to be food. If you ever do notice you are missing eggs in the nesting box I would recommend separating the one that is doing it or putting ceramic eggs in the coop then they will leave the real ones alone expecting them to be like the ceramic eggs.

I have tried putting Easter eggs in the the nesting box and it doesn't help.

 

[BlueBaby]

Wow, If I ever get any that are eating my eggs, it will be time to eat the chickens!

 

[SW31]

We had some soft shelled eggs which caused the birds to rush in and eat. Our French neighbours advised to up the protein so we started giving them grated emmenthal cheese and crushed oyster shells. Before dog attack we then had very few problems.

 

[rebrascora]

You could try putting curtains on your nest boxes to make them dark, so that the eggs are less obvious. Sometimes it is just opportunistic. Two pieces of feed bag stapled at the top and hanging down to almost the lip of the nest box may help. Unfortunately once they get a habit of it, your only options are to cull those responsible.... identifying them may not always be possible or they may all have learned the habit.... or roll away nest boxes. These can be relatively simply made using paint trays.... the ones with fold out legs at one end to make an incline and a trough to cover the low end. There is a You Tube video on them somewhere.... will try to find it and link it....

 

[rebrascora]

Here we go....

 

[SW31]

Give them some more protein such as grated cheese as per French neighbours suggestion. It worked for us.