Eggs in the basket = feeding frenzy

[GA963]

I have noticed that the chickens are interested in the wire egg basket I use to collect eggs. I usually am careful to keep it away from them, but yesterday I was doing a couple of things and forgot about it momentarily in the yard. I found several of them clustered around it pecking at the eggs. There were six in the basket; only one survived. In the space of a couple of minutes, one had almost completely been eaten.

I have also had some broken/eaten egg issues with this group. It hasn't happened much, but seems to be increasing: twice in the last week. They seem protective and aware of the eggs in the nesting box, which they mostly are using--but that's where the broken ones have been (known only because some of the albumin soaks through the pad at the bottom where they can't get to it; the shells are completely gone by the time I find them).

I'm hoping that the issue with the egg basket is that they view eggs in a strange place (outside the coop in the yard) differently and that it won't necessarily lead to eating the ones they lay in the nesting box. I'm also hoping that the eggs eaten in the nesting box are due to eggs getting broken accidentally, at which point they become food in the eyes of all. The shells don't seem particularly fragile, but I'm upping the calcium I give them.

I do have a ceramic egg in the box that they frequently toss out into the coop. They seem to realize it is different. Is there anything else I should be doing?

 

[Aapomp831]

It sounds like your chickens are breaking the eggs on purpose since discovering their super nutritious, protein filled centers. It’s a very difficult habit to break; I would get some ceramic eggs. Collect the fresh eggs as often as possible, and leave the fake eggs in there. The thought process is they will peck at them and become disinterested when they don’t break. But this needs to be nipped in the bud quickly - last resort I would get a rollaway nesting box.

 

[GA963]

In the following two weeks, it doesn't seem to have led to a lot of egg-eating. They have laid most of their eggs in the nesting box; while I have found signs of two broken ones, they've averaged three per day that I've recovered (for five birds). I'm hopeful they mostly went after the ones in the basket because they're conditioned to think that anything I carry to their tractor is food. I've also been careful not to give them another chance to chow down.