How to keep chickens from eating eggs

[aart]

I believe that egg eating is more a learned habit than lack of proper diet.
It only takes a couple of soft shelled eggs broken in the nest to start them in on pecking all the eggs.

To stop it......
Eggs should be gathered frequently, leaving fake eggs in their place.
Completely clean a nest immediately if an egg has been broken/eaten.
Should never be left long enough for maggots to hatch.
Roll out nests can really help.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

I believe that egg eating is more a learned habit than lack of proper diet.
It only takes a couple of soft shelled eggs broken in the nest to start them in on pecking all the eggs.

To stop it......
Eggs should be gathered frequently, leaving fake eggs in their place.
Completely clean a nest immediately if an egg has been broken/eaten.
Should never be left long enough for maggots to hatch.
Roll out nests can really help.

I feed raw eggs to my chickens and I have had no issues with them attempting to break open eggs to eat in their nests. I don't collect eggs until the evenings, my chickens have 24/7 access to 20% protein feed and free range during the day. Maybe mine are outliers

 

[aart]

I feed raw eggs to my chickens and I have had no issues with them attempting to break open eggs to eat in their nests. I don't collect eggs until the evenings, my chickens have 24/7 access to 20% protein feed and free range during the day. Maybe mine are outliers

Well, I'm sure you don't feed those eggs in the nests along with the broken shells.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

Well, I'm sure you don't feed those eggs in the nests along with the broken shells.

Not in the nests, but under the lean-to I break them right there on the concrete and let them eat everything. They usually just eat the egg and my ducks come along and eat the shells.

 

[Happy hen lover]

I've also heard of filling hollowed our eggs with mustard! At least you would know who's doing it!.

 

[aart]

Not in the nests, but under the lean-to I break them right there on the concrete and let them eat everything. They usually just eat the egg and my ducks come along and eat the shells.

When I was chicken sitting long long ago, before I had chickens myself, the guy would throw an egg on the coop floor hard enough to break it for them to eat. He didn't have egg eating problems either.

 

[Ridgerunner]

My chickens have figured out that they can eat their own eggs, so they crack one and end up getting the other eggs dirty.

Most chickens will eat an egg that is already open. Soft shelled eggs, broken eggs, such as that. I do not consider them an egg eater. An egg eater is a chicken that purposely opens an egg to eat it. The others may join in to help eat it once the egg is open.

Have you actually seen a hen opening an egg? Could it be possible that one is laying a soft or really thin-shelled egg that gets broken when they walk on and off the nest? If egg shells are left, are they reasonably thick or are they really thin?

I don't know if you have one that is opening the eggs or if several are. It can be a learned behavior. I'd try very hard to determine which one or ones are actually opening the eggs and remove them to see if the others have learned. That would be my top priority, see how big of a problem you actually have.

The only two things I know of for sure to stop egg eating are to get them all to use rollaway nests (which isn't always easy) or to get rid of the hen or hens. I've read posts where people try the mustard in an egg, ceramic eggs, or dark curtained nests. On the few that actually give feedback once their hens have started egg eating, some say they worked, some say they did not. There is nothing wrong with trying any of these, they might work.

I don't think egg eating has anything to do with protein, calcium, or boredom. I think one learns that they can eat an egg after they find one broken or a soft shelled one breaks and they make that connection. They don't always make that connection when they find a broken egg, from what I've seen they seldom do. But some do.

I've only had one actual egg eater, one that would open eggs on purpose. She would open one or two eggs a day, no more, and a few of the others would help her eat them. As soon as I found out which one was doing it (she opened an egg in front of me) I ate her. One of my goals with chickens is for meat so that was an easy decision for me. It's not for a lot of people. About the time she started egg eating, I had a pullet just starting to lay that was laying from the roost at night and the eggs were breaking when they hit the coop floor. I'm confident that is where she learned. None of the others learned from her.

 

[Jess W]

Someone told me that before my hens start laying, I should put fake ceramic eggs (which can be found at feed stores and TSC) in my nest boxes. They peck at these fake eggs and explore them and when they realize they aren't edible they stop being interested, so when the real eggs are around they focus their attention on the other things I have for them to do in the coop instead. This worked on keeping birds out of my strawberries too... I saw someone paint rocks red and put them in their berry bed and when the real berries came in the birds didn't even try. It worked for me!!!! Maybe it would help to put ceramics in for awhile and then be extra diligent about collecting the real ones quickly so they only have the ceramic ones to peck at?

I did this but simply used golf balls and it did the trick!

 

[La granja grande]

This happened to me and a friend of mine, they would mercilessly eat every egg they found even the ones that weren’t in the nestbox, the thing is that they need more than soy bean protein (plant substitute protein). Chickens need one third of their diet in animal protein( milk meat eggs etc), one seeds/grains, and one in plant matter. You have to give them animal protein, and as with the case of my friend and I they will stop immediately.

 

[aart]

You have to give them animal protein

I very, very rarely give my birds animal protein....never had any egg eaters.
(except for the occasional broken softshell)