hens pecking eggs?

[monkeytreecreations]

Hi there! I have an urban flock of 4 hens. One started laying about 3 weeks ago, and 2 more started laying in the last few days. When we go out to collect the eggs, one of them is always cracked. It's not a hairline crack, it looks like it got dropped or pecked and it's always on the end. We have been finding them in the nesting boxes or on the ground, never in the same place (we need to get some golf balls going). Anyone have any thoughts on what's going on? I think one of the hens may be pecking the eggs! Why are they doing/would they do this? Thanks, Abi

 

[WilczenskiFarm]

One of our hens was clearly pecking at ours too... 1 or 2 eggs (out of 6 to 8 daily) would be cracked on the top. I know which hen too. She pecks very hard at everything. I saw her do it, so I got wooden eggs at a craft store, and put them in each box. We also tried to collect the real eggs as soon as possible after being laid in order to get them out of her sight. A few days of that, and now we collect once a day, all 8, all intact. She never went so far as to try to eat them (thank goodness!). But we keep the wooden eggs in there still... just in case she gets any crazy ideas!
Hope this helps!

 

[monkeytreecreations]

Thanks Wilczenski! I'll give that a try. She's one of our afternoon layers, so it's a little tough to get right to them, but hopefully this will help! : )