Egg eating? What would you do? (sorry long story)

[havi]

I have a small coop and have only so much room for where things are placed. Well today when I came home from work I went to go get my two eggs that are nomally out there, but when I opened the door there was only one egg in the nest. The other was on the floor and broke. I have 6 chickens in all and I am 100 positve that 2 are laying, one brown and one green. I have 4 brown layers and two green layers. So I dont know if this was a new brown layer that layed her first egg or if its the old one. The one that was on the floor was pecked, I think, it was hard to tell because the wood chips and dirt that were around it. The whole egg wasnt broken it just looked as if the smaller end had a hole in it or something. My problem is I leave the house at 6am and dont get home until 4:15ish. Hubbys hours are now the same as mine so I cant have him get the eggs eariler. What should I do? I know once a chicken gets a taste of the egg its hard to stop them from eating it right? I just dont know what to do now.

 

[tattooedchickenlady]

It's possible that one of your girls who was previously a non-layer just started, and laid it on the floor. And in the process the egg may have gotten a hole in it. I wouldn't panic until it happens a couple of days in a row.....
When we first got our girls, we didn't have enough shavings in the boxes, and consequently got holey eggs. Now that we have enough cushion, we don't have that problem.

 

[chickenfanatic]

ok a few old tricks that do work i know i have used them a hundred times hahaha a golf ball they will peck at it till they figure out it wont break and this helps detour them and the most important is oyster shell alot of times in my experiance they eat their eggs when they have a deficiency of some sort oyster shell works with this theory well. hope this helps. keep us posted.

 

[Poulets De Cajun]

Quote:
I second this advice, except for the golfball stuff. The normal cause of egg eating is a calcium deficiency. Oystershell should help eliminate it. The golf ball, in my opinion, would encourage them to peck anything that resembled it.

 

[havi]

Thats what Ive been reading in books, but they have had oyster shell every since the first egg was layed. I have it in a little bowl for them to eat as much as they want. I was out there the week before last when my first brown layer laid her egg. Well she stated cakleing and one of my BO came running over to see what was going on. When my RIR got up and walked off the BO looked at the egg and pecked it. So right away I picked it up so she wouldnt eat it. I didnt think much about it though at the time. Do you think it might be because they are bored or something? How would I fix that?

 

[Promiselandfarm]

What if it is a rooster that is the egg bandit?

 

[havi]

Quote:
I dont have any roosters. The one BYCers and I thought might be a rooster turned out to be a hen.

 

[Mule Chick]

I had a problem with that,probably due to boredom, and I got some of those ceramic eggs from McMurray hatchery and kept a few in the nest. It cleared right up.