I have an egg sucker/breaker....help me find which one is responsible.

[imthedude]

Hi all.

Went to gather eggs last night to find that I had four broken eggs in the nest boxes. Not just slightly cracked or even one tiny peck hole. They were demolished with every bit of the yolk/white devoured. I have a flock of 23 birds - 10 layers, 12 pullets with a few of them laying, and 1 rooster. Aside from process of elimination by isolating a couple of birds a day until the egg breaking stops, how can I figure out who is doing the dirty work? I looked for some dried yolk on three birds that I suspected as culprits, but that provided no evidence. Could the rooster be responsible (trying to prevent competition from entering his lair)?

I put out some more oyster shell last night thinking this might also be a calcium deficiency thing.

Any help/advice is greatly appreciated. I hate wasting/losing eggs, as I'm sure all of you do too.

Thanks in advance.

 

[<3ChickenForever]

Usually the hen that does it will have yellow on their beak, belly, or feet. That happened to us but then we added more oyster shells which they LOVE! And we only et 1-2 eggs broken each week. Good luck!!

 

[ilovechickens121]

you should pick your eggs right away but my chickens don't eat their eggs until i allow them to you should make sure their is no rats or possums and if your chickens do eat their eggs put a eeg in front of them and watch who eats them:/

 

[colebarnhart]

Might be a snake!!!!!!!

 

[uncle rico]

wow!!

 

[momtotnt]

Any particular type snakes eat eggs more than others? Any easy way to determine if that's the culprit?

 

[Billyj]

If there is still egg parts there, I don;t think it is a snake. It usually eats the whole egg. If it reguritates(sp) the shell, it is kinda folded around itself.

 

[Zonoma]

In the "Predator and Pests" section right now there is a thread going with pictures of a blue jay flying in and eating the chicken eggs. It might not be your girls at all!