I found my egg eater!!

[ginasmarans]

Yesterday afternoon when I checked the nests,there were no signs of eaten eggs,so I sacrificed one and injected blue food coloring in it and put it in one of the nests.I hid out and noticed one hen in a nest kind of pecking at the eggs,so I thaought"ah ha! that's probably the one." I took all the eggs but the decoy egg out and left for awhile. When I went back about 10 minutes later,I caught her on the side of the nest,egg half eaten,and with bits of blue egg shell on her beak! I clipped her top beak and marked her with food coloring. Hopefully she will not be able to break any more eggs,but if she does,I will know which one she is and remove her.

 

[eggzettera]

Interesting approach to finding the culprit, but I couldn't clip a beak, but that is just me.

 

[pips&peeps]

Hey, that's a good idea.

One of my chickens wouldn't have only lost the upper portion of her beak a much bigger piece would have been gone.....

 

[ametauss]

Can a chicken eat an egg and not leave any trace behind??

I have disappearing eggs but nothing is left behind or disturbed.

I've put a store bought egg in the nest last night and it was still there this morning.... not sure if the culprit only likes brown eggs

Thanks.

 

[ginasmarans]

I was careful not to clip it so it would bleed. Hopefully she will not be able to break an egg. I want to give her a chance because I think she started eating eggs because she was half starved(before I got her). She doesn't have that excuse now,though.
You might have a snake eating yours. They would probably leave a bought egg alone if it were cold. I think they would be drawn to a warm egg. Put a ceramic egg in the nest.

 

[Julie08]

I couldnt clip a hens beak either. Glad you found the culprit!

 

[ticks]

I, personally would eat it. an egg eating habit is hard to break.

 

[redwa]

Maybe she is eating the eggs because she is deficient in protein or calcium, or???

 

[ChickaD]

Here's something a little different: one or the other of our laying chickens will only eat an egg if they are kept in their coop longer than they like, rather than being let outside...such as if I'm away from the house for a while. Talk about blackmail!

I've always heard it's an unbreakable habit, but ours do it rarely, and only when they are bored or cooped up. Brats!

 

[kristenm1975]

The only time an egg was eaten in my coop was when I put one into one of the two nests the girls don't use, in an attempt to trick them into laying there. I have around 14 hens laying, and 4 nests out there, but they peck each other terribly, fighting over two of the nests. Can't figure 'em!

Anyway, my little attempt to outsmart them backfired when some smarty pants hen pecked the egg into smithereens. Never seen a cracked egg anywhere before or since.