Hen eating eggs

[Pipers hens]

Wondering why one of my 3 hens is eating one of the other hen's eggs? If we don't get out there and get them quick enough she is poking and eating one of the other hen's eggs. it is always the same hen's egg I think. Reasons for this? How do I prevent it?

 

[TwoCrows]

Hello there and welcome to BYC!

This may be a few things. If she is only eating one particular hens eggs, it could be either this egg eating hen is the flock leader and feels that this hen should not be laying eggs, or possibly this other hen is laying thinned shelled eggs and because these eggs are vulnerable to cracking, this egg eating hen has learned she can get a quick snack on these eggs.

You might hang some curtains over your nest boxes. I had lots of troubles a couple of years ago with a hen that is older and laid all kinds of thin shelled and no shelled eggs and all the hens were eating these eggs. So I hung up some curtains to keep the boxes dark, so the hens couldn't cruise for eggs and I also kept fake eggs in each box. This helps to train the hens that eggs are not penetrable when they do try to break them. Hang the curtains so there is a small slit at the middle so the hens have to peek inside and go through this slit. At first you can keep the curtains open a bit more so they get used to going in through the curtains. Once they get use to them, you can close this slit down so there is only enough space for a hen to peek in the dark box. They rarely mess with eggs in a darkened box. At least mine stopped doing this.

Always make sure to keep oystershell near their food and water at all times and keep the treats down to a dull roar so they are eating their layer feed much of the time.

If this is a dominant hen just going after a particular hens eggs, I would think the curtains will help as well.

Good luck!!

 

[ms2rt]

Cull the bird immediately

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Sometimes it's not enough protein, could be boredom, maybe your nestboxes are too light, or maybe this bird just likes eggs, it's not normal behavior, you could try darkening your boxes, I would add lots of ceramic fake eggs or golf ball sometimes just trying to peck these items will make a bird give up after awhile, I have heard people putting mustard in eggs, and various concoctions that taste bad. I would certainly try changing some thing before culling, the only egg eater I ever had was a sex link hen, I think it was a lack of protein, you could try putting them back on a grower with higher protein, just some thoughts.