Hen pecking her egg

[jennymay]

I have 8 hens that have just started laying eggs. One hen pecks the top of her egg, so every one she lays has a little hole in the top. Can I stop her from doing this, and are the eggs ok to eat?

 

[chicmom]

Put a few golf balls in the nest boxes. If she pecks those, then it'll be hard and might discourage her to quit doing that.......Right now, collect eggs quickly to discourage egg eating.

Also, is the nesting area in a nice, dimly lit place? That also helps discourage egg eating....Pecking is sometimes the beginning of egg eating.....Once they taste the egg, IT'S BAD. Then another hen sees the bad girl eating the egg, and they all learn.....

 

[brahmakid11]

if they are eating the egg try putting a hole in the egg let the liquid drain out and put a little mustard in the middle to make it look like the yolk try that a few times and they should stop becouse they hate the taste of mustard.

 

[JodyJo]

follow the above advice...if she starts eating her eggs, it's the stew pot for her...she will teach the others to do it. I have neighbor who just had to get rid of all her chickens, they were egg eating...of course they didn't free range, so they were confined to a small run 24/7 also....

 

[jennymay]

Thank you. So far she has not eaten the egg. She has not broken through the membrane. I have an idea which chicken it is though I haven't actually caught her doing it yet. Ergh! I'll keep vigilant and see if I can stop this. I am also letting them out of their cage more often but eye-yye-yye... what a mess.