Help.. I think I have an Egg Eater.....

[BooeyBird]

Today I went to collect eggs, and I found an egg shell on the ground! Yesterday, an egg was all cracked open and not eaten... How do I prevent my chickens from eating their eggs?

 

[CrzyChknLady81]

There are some great suggestions earlier in this thread...but some include filling an egg with mustard(blow the eg out like a craft project and use syringe to fill it with mustard--one person said their hens liked it, so that may not work for everyone), collect as often as you can, put fake eggs/golf balls in nest so they cant peck those/eat them, darken up nest boxes....

Personally, I use cat litter boxes with lids as nest boxes, which keeps them dark--this is also mentioned as a way to keep them from doing it... but if you catch your egg eater, I would separate her asap, or else the other girls will pick up on it and you will have a lot more than one eating them...Best of luck!!!

 

[BooeyBird]

I'm pretty sure it is my polish hen because her eggs are the only ones that have been eaten. She likes to lay her eggs right in the middle of the floor instead of in a nesting box for some reason, so I am guessing that is why those are the only ones being eaten.

 

[CrzyChknLady81]

Aw And I love Polish..usually great birds.. Wonder if you could isolate her for a while and literally watch her and as soon as she lays, take it from her? Maybe enough days in a row, she will break herself?
I realize not everyone works from home and has that option, if thats the case, Im sorry bc I have no idea what else to suggest..

 

[MarcoPollo]

I'm pretty sure it is my polish hen because her eggs are the only ones that have been eaten. She likes to lay her eggs right in the middle of the floor instead of in a nesting box for some reason, so I am guessing that is why those are the only ones being eaten.

You could try placing a nesting box in the middle of the floor. You can use a 5gallon bucket on its side, a cat litter box, an old tupperware/plastic storage container, or anything that you can put bedding in. CrzyChcknLady's advice of isolating the hen is good too. That helped when I had this problem with my hens. I think the shake up in environment made a difference. My isolated hen had to use a 5gallon bucket as a nest box. The bucket had a lid. I carved out half of the lid so that she could get in the bucket but she couldn't roll the egg out of it and most of the bedding stayed in the bucket.

 

[CrzyChknLady81]

Do you think she is eating her own eggs bc she is laying in the middle of the coop or do you think that someone else is getting to her eggs bc its exposed in the middle of the coop? I just read into your comment a little further (must have been half asleep last time..lol) but wasnt sure which you meant....

 

[MarcoPollo]

Do you think she is eating her own eggs bc she is laying in the middle of the coop or do you think that someone else is getting to her eggs bc its exposed in the middle of the coop? I just read into your comment a little further (must have been half asleep last time..lol) but wasnt sure which you meant....

Could be any or all of them, not just the hen that laid the egg. In my experience, hens were more likely to peck at an object randomly laying on the coop floor as opposed to eggs in the nest box. But, there have been plenty of people on here talking about how they see their hens trying to roll eggs out of the nest box too. Often times you can find egg yolk on someone's beak and find the culprit(s) that way. Unfortunately when I have found broken eggs, I've found several hens with egg on their beak, so it was a case of 'one sees it happening and they all join in'. Switching things up for them and trying to re-train the one hen to lay in a nest box should help get their minds off of eating eggs. They may be bored too so give them something else to peck at like lettuce or cabbage heads, flock block treats, etc.

 

[CrzyChknLady81]

Could be any or all of them, not just the hen that laid the egg. In my experience, hens were more likely to peck at an object randomly laying on the coop floor as opposed to eggs in the nest box. But, there have been plenty of people on here talking about how they see their hens trying to roll eggs out of the nest box too. Often times you can find egg yolk on someone's beak and find the culprit(s) that way. Unfortunately when I have found broken eggs, I've found several hens with egg on their beak, so it was a case of 'one sees it happening and they all join in'. Switching things up for them and trying to re-train the one hen to lay in a nest box should help get their minds off of eating eggs. They may be bored too so give them something else to peck at like lettuce or cabbage heads, flock block treats, etc.

Mine are the same way... I was collecting out of my banties cage the other day and they decided that me cleaning the coop the day before was a good excuse to lay outside of the box and in a random corner..well their coop is the only one I cant walk in so I was all back in the coop and was sitting the eggs behind me, closer to the door and one hen randomly came up and started trying to peck the eggs..then another and before I could get backed out of the coop, all 3 hens were trying...they didnt bother them at all when they were in the 'nest' and never bother them when they are in the real nesting box..the next day they were back to laying in their box like nothing happened...

But to the OP...maybe try injecting an egg with food coloring...and then set it where ever the egg usually is that gets ate..maybe a red or blue dye would stay long enough for to find out who the eater is?? Sorry, I have never had this issue and just keep randomly butting in with ideas...lol...Just really dont know what I would do....

 

[BooeyBird]

There already is a big on the floor as a nesting box if any of them want to use it but none of them do. I figured out that is it my easter egger and my polish eating the eggs because they have orange stains on their head from the yolk. For some reason none of my chickens will lay their eggs in the nesting boxes anymore. I only have a small backyard flock, but each of them lays their eggs in corners, on the shelves, in the middle of the floor, and the bantam squeezes under the coop to lay her eggs in a secret nest. How can I train them to start laying their eggs in the nesting boxes again?

 

[MarcoPollo]

With my chickens, extra nest boxes added to the coop and adding golf balls and ceramic eggs to the nest boxes helped. I added 2 nest boxes that are portable so I could move them to whatever location the hens started randomly using. And separating the one hen so that she was kind of forced to use a 5 gallon bucket helped. When I reintroduced her back to the flock she went to the nest box that had ceramic eggs in it. I no longer add golf balls because I noticed that the hens prefer to all lay wherever the ceramic eggs are. Not sure if it's necessary but when I collect the eggs I also collect the ceramic ones too and then place them back out the next morning. I don't want the hens to catch on to my scheme because so far it is working!
I hope you can get your hens to go back to the nest boxes. You may have to just compromise with them and try to offer them a nest box where they like to go to. For whatever reason, they felt the need to avoid the nest boxes so maybe adding ceramic eggs can encourage them to go back to where they are supposed to be laying.