How do I stop my egg eater??

[sylvan mountain ranch]

Just found a couple broken eggs in the last week and caught my australorp eating an egg this morning!! Grabbed her and scolded her (haha) and tossed her out of the coop (gently) I have never had this happen before but I heard its hard to stop.....
Backstory on this week: My ducks hatched their ducklings and the chickens were all about cleaning up the egg shells.....I think maybe she go a taste for the shell and tried whole eggs?

Let me know your methods please!

 

[courtsmarans]

I recently have had to deal with this problem! I was told to make a mustard egg (hollow out an egg and fill it with mustard and hotsauce). When the hen opens the egg, she will not like what she finds. I also put golfballs in the egg box, gave them more oyster shells to munch on and gave them a flock block (seed block) to keep them entertained. I think this solved my problem, i havent had a broken egg in almost a week.

 

[21hens-incharge]

I think I may have "fixed" my egg eater.

I started baking to dry the shells from boiled eggs. A few days after filling a dish with the "used" egg shells she is no longer eating eggs.

Simple and worth a try.

I have always had oyster shell available by the way.

 

[Gray Farms]

Mustard trick is the best I've ever found. Hollow the egg, fill with yellow mustard, put back in the nest. Works the first time, every time for me.

 

[50-45-1]

If your nest boxes are exposed, try to darken them. Add curtins or enclose them so it is darker inside. A chicken can not eat what it can not see.
Make sure you are feeding oyster shell to insure hard eggs shells. Sometime the habit starts due to soft shells accidently broken and eaten. Crushing up your household eggs shells when they are fully dried is good but not a total fix.
Oyster shell is inexpensive and lasts a long time.
If your egg eater persists you can put a pair of pinless peepers on her for a time, i would recomend a month, it may break her of egg eating.
Again, she cant not eat what she can not see.

 

[Hayduke27]

I always keep a few ceramic eggs in the nesting boxes, and when I have had problems with egg eaters I just try to collect eggs frequently. I have found that the chickens who are curious/interested in pecking at the eggs get bored after messing with the ceramic eggs for a few days. Same concept as using some golf balls. This has been a pretty easy way for me to deal with the problem.