I went out to the coop this morning and there was a girl already on the nest. I let everyone else out to range and went about my morning coop chores. I didn't pay any attention to the hen until I saw her running from the box with an egg in her mouth! I blinked to make sure I wasn't seeing things and sure enough, she had turned the corner and was running across the yard with it! I wondered how on earth she was doing it, I mean, how could she get her beak open wide enough to carry a large egg? I followed her to see what she was planning on doing with it and soon realized (with horror) that she was eating it! She had skewered the shell with her top beak and clamped on with her bottom and took off with her prize! I ran her down and took it away but half of the contents were already gone. Okay, how do you nip egg eating in the bud? I removed all the eggs from the boxes (except for one box that contains 50 or so guinea eggs.) I don't want to disturb them because the guineas will start laying in the woods. I left the hard wooden ones in there. Is there any chance that I can stop this behavior before it spreads to the other hens? Should I quarantine that hen for a while? Is it a vitamin deficency of some sort? HEEElllllp!
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