egg eating chickens

[squat]

We have one or two chickens who peck a hole in the egg after laying it. Sometimes we find the broken egg on the floor of the coop and it appears that they haven eaten the shell. Any suggestions.

 

[DTchickens]

heard this is caused from lacking Grit. also heard calcium. cures- Feed them the egg until they get enough. Turn them loose on the yard for awhile. give them Granit-grit (SP?) "my dad did this" and feed them oyster shells

 

[Chicabee19]

Feed them the egg until they get enough

shouldn't you boil eggs and grind up the shells before giving it to them so they aren't 'attracted' to eggs in the shell???​

 

[DTchickens]

Quote:
shouldn't you boil eggs and grind up the shells before giving it to them so they aren't 'attracted' to eggs in the shell???

i never did that with mine.. and mine stopped it.

 

[mainchick]

That is a good suggestion. My d'uccle has started eating her eggs recently and I was gonna ask about it. I am glad I checked this out!

 

[squat]

We started saving our egg shells and feeding them back to the chickens. They no longer peck holes in their eggs after laying them. Problem solved!

 

[The Farmers Wife]

If none of these ideas works for you,,,,a quick fix for us was tacking a piece of sturdy cloth over the entrance into the nest.....the darkness inside the nest box made them not want to hang around.......they push right through the "denim" flap, lay their eggs and get out.......worked great for us.....(we left about a 1 inch gap at the bottom........
My Grandmother swore by wooden eggs or gourds....a few hard pecks on a shell that was hard enough to rattle them was enough......though I have not tried this myself...that was my next option....but the cloth fixed my egg eating Marans and Barnevelders......which were my offenders~

 

[Colored Egg Farmer]

Yea feeding the egg back to the chickens may help the problem. They egg eating may be due to a lack of Calcium. Just remember to clean them and make them somewhat unrecognizable. I crush mine up and sprinkle it directly back in the feed.