Egg Eating

[BonnieBlue]

Today, I had to lock my girls in the coop for approx 5 hours while I went out of town. I had made a change and they needed to stay in their coop. They have stayed in their coop for 3 hours before with no problem. I noticed on my security camera in their coop that one of the nests had an egg. Then it was gone. I combed through the coop and cannot find it.

Here was my big mistake. I put their water in the coop, but in my scatter brained haste to get on the road, I forgot to put their food in the coop. All I can think is they ate it out of hunger. I feel sick, because it was avoidable, and my fault.

So what can I do to try to keep this from happening again, and hope they didn't get a taste for eggs? All I can think of is take the eggs out of the nesting boxes asap, and not leave them for any length of time without food.

No lectures, please. I already feel like absolute s***. I need guidance on how to move forward.

 

[rosemarythyme]

They wouldn't have starved without food for 5 hours... they had water which is far more important, so I wouldn't sweat it.

The egg might've had an issue with it (soft shelled, cracked shell, thin shell that was stepped on) so the birds were drawn towards eating it. If birds eat damaged eggs it doesn't necessarily teach them to eat eggs in the future, but yes it's best to collect them regularly to reduce the chances of eggs getting damaged. If you don't see further incidents with egg eating then I'd consider it a one off occurrence.

 

[BonnieBlue]

They wouldn't have starved without food for 5 hours... they had water which is far more important, so I wouldn't sweat it.

The egg might've had an issue with it (soft shelled, cracked shell, thin shell that was stepped on) so the birds were drawn towards eating it. If birds eat damaged eggs it doesn't necessarily teach them to eat eggs in the future, but yes it's best to collect them regularly to reduce the chances of eggs getting damaged. If you don't see further incidents with egg eating then I'd consider it a one off occurrence.

Thank you. I feel horrible. They didn't get a chance to eat much before shutting them in this morning. I almost called my neighbor ro ask to collect the egg, but I knew she was busy and didn't want to bother.

I just don't want to set them up for anything bad.

 

[nuthatched]

What do they eat as a diet? Sometimes they'll eat a broken egg but it can be a sign of protein deficiency

 

[Cynthia12]

A lot of folks throw eggs out for them to eat. They don't usually bother the eggs in a nest.

 

[BonnieBlue]

What do they eat as a diet? Sometimes they'll eat a broken egg but it can be a sign of protein deficiency

Nutrena Hearty Hen. It is 18% protein. Every day they get a handful that amounts to a teaspoon or two per hen of dried mealworms that I throw into the run for them to dig around for as a treat. They eat very little scraps as I compost 99% of them. Maybe the once every couple of weeks veggie scrap.

The shells are hard and thick.