How do I stop egg breakers?

[spies04]

Hi! I have some hens who love to break the eggs and I have no idea how to stop them. I have a large coop and it would be challenging to separate them. Plus I am not sure who is actually breaking them. Wanted to see if anyone had some successful steps on how to stop this annoying habit . thanks!

 

[redsoxs]

Egg eating is one of the biggest challenges a chicken keeper faces. Sometimes the only solution is culling the offending bird. I have heard of some people putting game cameras (like the kind deer hunters use) in the coop to identify the culprit. Below is a link of what some folks have tried . You can also type in "egg eating" or "egg eater" in the BYC search bar and see what pops us. Good luck to you!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/633097/stopping-egg-eaters

 

[redsoxs]

I should also add that egg eating is a big issue in that it is contagious to other members of the flock. Then you have a really big problem. Another possible solution I thought about is one of those roll away nest boxes - here is a link to a thread of a homemade version but there are commercial ones available as well. Good luck to you!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/76189/roll-away-nesting-box

 

[feather13]

I think I read in chicken raising book somewhere that feeding your chickens oyster shells might help with the egg eating problem. One of mine was making single pecks in eggs (but not eating them) and after I tried putting oyster shells in their feed this behavior has stopped.

 

[spies04]

Thank you so much for all of the great information. I truly appreciate your help!!

 

[KrazyChromatics]

we recently went through a bout of this took several weeks and we are finally getting eggs again... we have to pick eggs several times a day, as soon as we hear a chicken calling we head out and take the egg... after a while, they forget i think

 

[meganblythe]

I was having problems with that too, but I don't think my chickens were intentionally breaking eggs (though they were happy to eat the eggs that broke). I suspected that the eggs were accidentally cracking when the chickens laid the egg after I actually saw an egg get laid - the chicken stands up and the egg drops a few inches. My chickens like to push the pine shavings around and sometimes get down to bare plywood in the middle of the nest box, so the egg would've been dropping on the bare wood. I theorized that if the egg cracked when it dropped, then the chickens stepped on it as they left the box (I have some heavy bodies birds) the eggs might break all the way (the shell wouldn't be as structurally sound as an uncracked egg, so wouldn't withstand the weight of the chicken as well). So I started "fluffing" the pine shavings back into the center of the nest box ever time I collect eggs - and I haven't had any broken eggs since then!

 

[spies04]

Great information. thanks!!