I am so annoyed. Someone is eating every single egg that gets laid. My girls just started laying a few weeks ago. The day before yesterday I found the one egg laid that day with the shell pecked open and the insides eaten out. Every day since, all the eggs have been eaten. We check the coop several times a day for eggs too, so it's not as if the egg has been laying out there for hours. My hens and roo have a large open pen, and they also are allowed to roam our good sized backyard a lot of days. They eat layer feed plus scraps and scratch for treats. How can I get the egg eating to stop?? I have no idea which hen is doing it. I'm so frustrated! There's no point in keeping chickens if they eat their own eggs every time they lay!
Remove one hen at a time for a few days until you receive eggs. Then wait a few days with that hen removed to make sure it is her. Then you can either keep her out permanantly, rehome her, or well most people dont like the last option..... Some people have had luck using golf balls in the nests though. I will not keep an egg eater here.
If you have a camcorder, you could try putting it out in the coop late morning, or whenever you think the culprit would most likely strike, and catch her red-handed (or red-beaked!) My camcorder doesn't record for very long, but it might do the trick.
Worst of it is she can teach the others to do the same. Sometimes you can pick them out by finding yolk on the beak. Or you could take a good book and sit there one morning....
Put ceramic eggs in their nests. When the egg eater goes to peck it she'll get a painful surprise of solid rock. I'm going to make a bunch next semester in ceramics with suldate clay... it's really hard and will make them think twice before eating their eggs!
I cover my nest openings with a towel, almost all the way. For some reason they will go in to lay, but want to get out after they are done and "Usually" don't go back in to pick at eggs. Give it a try. I also use a dermal on the beaks to file off the points and it makes it harder for them to break the eggs.
Thanks for the suggestions! I'm trying to decide which to try first. I would love to sit out there all day and just watch, but my toddler won't stay in one place that long, haha. I only have two pullets laying so far, and they lay at random times and not regularly yet. That makes it a little harder. I'm so upset that I have an egg eater. I will try putting fake eggs out there first I think, we'll see what happens.
I put a camera out in my coop and hooked it up to a VCR. I recorded but could also watch it in real time on a TV. I used regular cable for connecting the camera to the VCR but had to buy video adaptors to adapt the camera connector to the TV/VCR cable. I bought two 100 ft cables with a barrel connector connecting the two cables together as I had to go over 150 ft.
Put a couple of "store bought" eggs in the nest. The offender will soon show off her bad habit. Another possibility is that you may have another varmint that 's eating the eggs. Hens usually eat the shell and all, and they almost always have lots of yolk on the feathers around their head and neck. I'd suspect a rat, or possibly a cat, if you are finding shells.
I had a hen do that and an old farmer told me she needs the calcium. My chickens won't just each the osyter shell when I put it out so I mask it in oatmeal or rice. When I made up some the egg eating stopped. He told me to put some osyter shell in their water as its an easy way to make sure they al get it. I do that for my ducks but I usually make up the rice for the chickens.
