Help! My hens keep eating their unborn chicks!

[thealeycat]

I have a couple hens who are eating there eggs that still have chicks growing ? I know if they eat their eggs it's a calcium deficiency but I give them crushed oyster shells and layena feed on top of that I just don't understand why their eating the unborn chicks ? Tips would be greatly appreciated !!

 

[sourland]

Do your hens have their own separate nests? Very frequently hens sitting in a communal nest will fight over/jostle/crack/break and eat their eggs - not always, but frequently.

 

[Varglet]

Mine will sometimes "cull" some eggs themselves, when they feel like the chick stopped developing or the egg wasn't fertile to begin with. Other than that my chickens never even try to eat their own eggs. Do yours try to eat other eggs, or just the ones they're incubating?