How to make chickens stop eating their own eggs?

[SniperGoose]

I have 9 hens; 6 Speckled Sussex, and 3 Black SexLink that are all around 2 years old. They've been eating their eggs a lot lately, so I'm constantly having to clean out their nest boxes, and of course I haven't been getting that many eggs due to this. I love my girls to death, but I really wish they wouldn't eat their eggs! Any tips to help make them stop? Thanks!

 

[sylviethecochin]

As I understand serious egg-eating--once they start, they don't stop.

It's perfectly normal for hens to gulp up a broken egg dropped on the floor, or a soft-shelled egg that broke. It's not normal for them to peck open the egg in order to eat it.

While I admit that I have no experience with your particular situation (the one time I brought home an egg-eating hen from the auction, I found out within the week and culled her immediately) I've heard that the only way to stop it is to get rid of the hens that are eating the eggs. I really hope that it's not your hens who are eating the eggs. Are you sure it's the hens and not, for instance, squirrels or rats?

This article says it can help you break an egg-eater of the habit. If you want both flock and eggs, I'd suggest reading it and following the advice therein.

I hope it helps.

 

[SniperGoose]

Sounds like this is gonna be a challenge to break them of this habit! I'm 100% sure it's my hens doing this. I've caught them in the act multiple times, and sometimes they'll have egg on their faces. My hens are mainly pets, so I could never bring myself to get rid of them.
That article you linked had a lot of helpful tips about this, so I'm gonna give that stuff a try! Thank you so much!

 

[Lifeiseasy]

I would try sticking two or more similarly colored ceramic eggs in the nesting boxes to confuse them and collect eggs as soon as you can after they’re laid. Also, if you can find the culprit and it’s only one or two, try isolating them with the fake eggs and keep a close eye on when they lay. It might be easier to break them of the habit like that.

 

[RWise]

Are you sure the eggs are not breaking?
When I think a hen is eating good eggs, I will put her in a cage with a good egg and watch. If she breaks a good egg, well I make dumplings,,,,,Good luck!

 

[aart]

@azygous just wrote this excellent post on another thread about a possible egg eater:

You may not actually have an egg eater. Have you examined the quality of the shell of the egg remains you find? If it's very thin, she could be laying the egg, then stepping on it, breaking it, then, as all chickens will do, eat the broken egg contents.

No, trimming the beak does nothing to solve this issue. What you are referring to with the "plastic strip" through the beak is a device that blocks forward vision of the chicken so they are less likely to peck at other chickens. This also does nothing to solve the egg eating issue.

What I recommend is calcium therapy to treat the thin shell problem so you won't be seeing broken eggs. Calcium citrate with D3 400mg one tablet a day until the eggs are normal again.

 

[sourland]

Lots of nesting material (to keep eggs from cracking) and hanging flaps on the nest boxes (to darken them and reduce visibility) can sometimes help with this very bad habit. Frequent collection of eggs helps.

 

[royalhillhomestead]

Hi there. I'm having a problem with eggs being pecked. Usually one or two a day. You can actually see the beak shape, so I'm sure it's a hen doing the pecking. I have a golf ball in each nesting box, but that doesn't seem to have made a difference. I read somewhere that you can put something hot on the golf balls, or a sacrificial egg. Does anyone know what it is that you put on them? I have essential oils that might do the trick, but not sure which one to try, or maybe a hot spice like cayenne pepper made into a paste or Tobasco sauce? If anyone has some actual experience with this I'd appreciate some input. Thank you!

 

[rosemarythyme]

Not sure how hot sauce would help, as birds don't have the same sort of sensitivity to capsaicin as we would. Supposedly they don't like mustard so you can try filling an empty shell with mustard. Or look into rollaway nest boxes where the eggs roll into a covered tray for pickup, they sound pretty fantastic.

 

[RWise]

The peppers are not going to work, my girls raid the garden and eat the very hot tepin peppers right off the plants!