Learning Lessons the Hard Way...Help! ‍♀️

[ojust4today]

Here I am again looking for sound advice for a mistake I made... I’m officially learning from the hard way. So a few months ago I had a hen that was laying super thin eggs. They were fragile. After several broke various ways I would just chuck them out of frustration/convenience around the coop. Well many chucks later some hens found the broken eggs, ate what they found and got a taste of yummy raw egg. At first it seemed harmless. I bought oyster shell to help with the egg shell and googled is it ok for chickens to eat raw eggs? Of course google said it was fine. So needless to say, my eggs got stronger, I was no longer chucking a daily treat and I was left with a hen determined to get her own treat. Now about two hundred cracked eggs later (I have 45 hens) I’m going crazy from this lesson I’m learning the hard way. This hen goes from egg to egg pecking until it can get the yummy treat inside. So picture this I got 22 eggs today and 5 of them had pecks that led to hairline cracks or cracks. I sell eggs and cannot sell eggs that have cracks. However, this is the first day she did not succeed in breaking an egg. Every day there is an egg mess all over my nesting box with eggs covered in the egg mess. It’s record breaking hot here in MD so the egg mess is practically cooked. I have tried everything but getting rid of the hen. Only cause I don’t know which hen it is or how to tell which one is doing it. I do think it’s only one because most of the egg is left there and most of the shell. At this point it seems like a boredom buster under those circumstances. Before this happened my eggs could go from nesting box to carton. Now they are a hot mess including the nesting box which I removed to get rid of the tight corner assuming it would help.
Any advice would be helpful and appreciated. I already know not to feed them raw egg as a treat...Lesson Learned.

 

[DobieLover]

Can you convert you nest boxes to a roll out nest box?
That way the hens cannot get to the eggs to peck them.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Well, two things come to mind. First, gather the eggs often, get them out of the nests as fast as you can, before your egg-pecker has a chance to damage them. And second, invest in a couple dozen golf * balls and keep some in your nests. After your culprit pecks a few of those, she may decide to stop that little game. Good luck!

Edit: OOPS, typed gold balls first time, sorry!

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

If you can't do that put a bunch of fake eggs in the boxes and hopefully after a while she'll give it up. Or set up a trail cam to catch the hen in the act!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I gotta get me one o' them trail cams everybody keeps talking about ....

 

[ojust4today]

Thanks everyone, these are all great suggestions. I think the most practical one to start right away is getting the eggs several times a day to not githus hen the opportunity. I really would like to know which hen it is and why so I agree Big Blue Hen a trail cam would be ideal.

Golf balls fake eggs Great idea too!!

Not sure I can convert to roll out nest box. Right now I use milk crates and they have been great for their purpose. That would so solve this problem though...thanks!

 

[slordaz]

it is harder than heck to break em, these ladies have given ya some sound advice, just had an idea with sleep addled mind, put ahead of lettuce or cabbage in a net low enough they can get at it but have to work at it, outta keep em more focused on that than the eggs if you have some place you can hang it from that would keep the chickens busy for quite a while

 

[ojust4today]

Well they are free range and have more then an acre all to them selves and are given treats several times a day as I feed them whatever we have leftover.

I would be up for trying anything. Months of this mess and messy eggs have taken their toll. Also lettuce cabbage an affordable treat with this heat wave.

Thanks!