Keep finding broken egg

[roseyred]

So I'm pretty sure this is coming from my Rhode Island Red. I guess she lays very early in the day because when I go out there I always find this

Not in a nest box and none of the inside of the egg left. The shell is soft but not soft enough that if she layed it it would have broken. Is she an egg eater? None of my other eggs ever get eaten? Or have shells that feel rubbery like that. They have lots of calcium available. I was thinking of maybe putting her in her own area and keeping an eye on her? See what time she lays and why I'm finding her eggs like this

 

[Wisher1000]

That sounds like a good plan. If she is laying soft shelled eggs, crushed oyster shell may help. Are you providing it free choice? Eggs are delicious! If this hen has discovered that fact, it may be hard to break her and worse yet, she may teach the others to eat eggs, too. Up her protein by fixing her scrambled eggs, tuna, or cat food. If that and the OS does not fix it, there are other options.......

 

[roseyred]

That sounds like a good plan.  If she is laying soft shelled eggs, crushed oyster shell may help.  Are you providing it free choice?  Eggs are delicious!  If this hen has discovered that fact, it may be hard to break her and worse yet, she may teach the others to eat eggs, too.  Up her protein by fixing her scrambled eggs, tuna, or cat food.  If that and the OS does not fix it, there are other options.......

Lol yes other options indeed....I feel like it's not her eating it for some reason....but she's the only one not laying in the nest box...maybe when it breaks when she lays it on the ground or wire the others are like yummmmmmmyyyy and destroy it.
I'll cage her up tonight on my porch. Probly put her in with one of the 5 month old wyandottes she loves so much so she's not lonely lll

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

I occasionally toss soiled eggs out into the run and let the chickens have them. What have I found from doing this? They eat everything, including the shell. There's no evidence left behind, except maybe a little wet that they just couldn't clean up.

However, when I was having a mouse issue in my coop, I would find egg shells left behind that had been licked clean. Sometimes they'd be broken completely in half, other times they'd just have a small hole in the shell, but the contents would always be completely gone.

Just a thought, but you may want to set some kind of mouse trap just to see what you get. I used a bucket trap. I'd set it every night, outside of my coop, and remove it each morning before I let the chickens out. I kept setting it until I didn't catch any more mice.

Good luck

 

[roseyred]

Well she's definitely not happy being in this cage all alone but I made her scrambled eggs and crushed eggshells in it and then whizzed it up in the blender LOL I fed it to her she seemed to eat most of it maybe tomorrow she'll be able to lay an egg on the hay that I put down instead of on the ground and maybe it won't break and I'll be able to examine what if she's actually laying or she'll eat it and then I'll know that she's the egg eater and I'll have to put some golf balls in there. But right now she hates me but hopefully it will help in her egg production.