Hen eating eggs

[DukesDucks]

Does look like someone tried to break in. Hard to tell from the picture but that looks like a thin shelled eggs compared to what my Muscovy and a friends Runner ducks lay. Are you supplementing your flock with oyster shell so that it is always available.
A suggestion I have seen is to take an egg like the one you showed. Without totally breaking it, see if you can empty the contents, refill with some dish soap, and put it back. Hopefully the culprit will try to finish eating it and find a surprise.
Egg eating is hard to break and worse others may follow the example.

 

[Chipmunk Chicks]

Does look like someone tried to break in. Hard to tell from the picture but that looks like a thin shelled eggs compared to what my Muscovy and a friends Runner ducks lay. Are you supplementing your flock with oyster shell so that it is always available.
A suggestion I have seen is to take an egg like the one you showed. Without totally breaking it, see if you can empty the contents, refill with some dish soap, and put it back. Hopefully the culprit will try to finish eating it and find a surprise.
Egg eating is hard to break and worse others may follow the example.

Yes, they always have oyster shell. It looks like it could be a bit thinner than the others I get. So far I have done the sand, but not yet SOAP! Oh wow

 

[Yardmom]

Some ducks especially in the first year of laying will lay soft eggs no matter what they are fed. The double eggs are probably your soft shell layer. The egg eating is also connected. Also I want to make sure you are aware that once a duck is fully Broody they will stop laying eggs

 

[Chipmunk Chicks]

Some ducks especially in the first year of laying will lay soft eggs no matter what they are fed. The double eggs are probably your soft shell layer. The egg eating is also connected. Also I want to make sure you are aware that once a duck is fully Broody they will stop laying eggs

Do you think she will go fully broody? Or not so long as I keep pulling her off the nest every morning? The run is not attached to their hut, and we haven't been letting them range due to predators, either, so I am quite literally pulling her off the nest each day, and bringing her back at night.

(As much as I would love to let her hatch out a real clutch, we're not currently set up for her to do that safely anyway.)

 

[Chipmunk Chicks]

Today was a good day!

We got three good eggs, and the duckies got a bigger "pond" for the enclosure! I had to add a few more pavers and rocks around the edge so they could climb in and out easier, but I can tell they were enjoying it!

 

[Chipmunk Chicks]

Yesterday we had two sitting and only two eggs, but no evidence that one had been eaten? Later on I found what clearly was a broken egg in the nest box in the run, but I have no idea who laid it bc usually the ducks don't use the nest box, and there was literally nothing remaining except a wet spot.

Today was two eggs only, one sitting, and one broken BLUE sand egg! This just gets weirder every day. lol I decided to start putting out two dishes of oyster shell instead of just one, in case maybe someone is guarding it? I didn't really think they would do that, since it's not the same as the food, and there is always some left over at the end of the day, but maybe?

 

[Pollo Blanco]

I don't think a chicken could break open a Muscovy egg but I could be wrong. I have had some success breaking the egg eating habit of my chickens by putting in some plastic eggs. I put hot sauce or mustard in one or two so if opened by chicken they get a nasty surprise. Others I fill with some sand so chickens feel the same weight as a real egg.

I didn't think that birds had receptors for spicy foods.

 

[Pollo Blanco]

So it's been up and down.

Question: I did get three eggs today, but one clearly is badly cracked. Does this look like it happened as it was being laid? Or is this due to a determined nibbler? The crack goes halfway around, which makes me think maybe she was working at it, and I interrupted her.
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Feel free to join in!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/how-many-eggs-did-you-get-today.1346646/

 

[Chipmunk Chicks]

So that was two days waking up to two eggs, and two birds sitting... One day, one was slightly cracked; the other they were both perfect.

Today, we are down to one egg and two sitting. @Miss Lydia Do you think that means one or both of them have officially gone broody?

I was so spoilt by getting three duck eggs a day like clockwork, until this all started!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Both are broody or one is just keeping the other company. Even my Muscovy drake will go in and lay next to his broody female sometimes for most of the day. Your ducks are beautiful by the way. I have 2 cochin bantams sharing a nest right now. How many eggs are under them or her?