Hen eating eggs @$$##!!

[jdellosso]

Today, my blue cochin laid her egg away from her box and when I went to check on them (just have 2), there was egg all over my yard, a crushed shell, and my brown cochin was slurping up egg yolk. They sure had a party with that. Gross! I am hoping it broke when it hit the bricks, and they just decided to give it a try. I crush egg shells for their calcium, and their eggs are always perfect. It seems from other posts that it is hard to break them of doing this, and it's hard to believe they find them so delicious. Thanks for the suggestions, I'll try some mock eggs. They're still young, only laying for about three months, and we've been through some interesting behaviors as they get used to it. Just as I thought we were in a good rhythm...now this. I'll keep watching for suggestions...good luck to you!

 

[2dancingrats]

I have 5 boxes. 12 hens. 5 hens are Auracanas, and don't lay every day.
The girls do get oyster shell. They also free-range daily. I'll have to watch them Hopefully, this is an accident.
They have been doing alot of pecking among themselves. I have two roosters (not planned that way), but they are pretty harried from all of the male attention they get. Besides singling out any egg-eater, I may re-home a roo.

 

[jdellosso]

My brown cochin just laid her egg in her box and didn't eat it-she was the one slurping yolk this morning! She just jumped out ready to go play with her sister-I separated them so she could "go about her business," and to see if she would eat it (and prevent her sister from doing it!) Hopefully these are isolated incidents, but I am going to go get some oyster shell-can't hurt!

 

[2dancingrats]

Got 10 eggs today. No suprises. Keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[Kung Foo Chicken]

Try your best to find the culprit. My neighbor never found his and all his chickens eat eggs now. They will teach this habit to the others.
I retrained one hen by keeping her away from the others for a long time. She "forgot" about egg eating and focused on making her
way through the pecking order again when re-introduced.

 

[jdellosso]

Figured out why my cochin ate her egg...she is so heavily feathered on her backside that sometimes she lays the egg and it sticks to her downy feathered behind. I've had to pull the egg off a few times, and most of the time her eggs have some down stuck to them. Well, she laid another, hopped out of the box, I looked in, but no egg. It was stuck to her backside, and she was trying to peck it off. She's got so much fluff, I didn't even see the egg, and she lays some hefty ones. No more egg eating since, and I'm just keeping an eye on them both. Sounds like this was just a random act for both of us. Whew!

 

[2dancingrats]

Too funny!
My girls haven't had any more mishaps lately. I going to go on hoping it was an accident.