My 3 chickens ate an egg together, what to do?

[AliceSaurus]

Today is filled with mixed emotions for me. I found a perfect little egg in the coop (right next to the nest boxes, working on that...) and thought it was my first from the 3 chickens I raised since April. My happiness turned to horror when I saw all of them sharing in eating a shell-less egg that was laid in the run. I don't know who laid it, or when, or who instigated eating it or what to do now. Is checking for eggs frequently throughout the day the answer? I was only looking twice a day up until now but i never accounted for the possibility of an egg with no real shell to protect it from their greedy little beaks... it was practically begging to be eaten. I'm hopeful because they didn't break open the one with the nice hard shell.

 

[Kelsie2290]

Congratulations on that first egg! Chickens commonly eat shell-less eggs, ime it really doesn't seem to lead to real egg eating, so hopefully your girls won't make it a habit either. Also keeping fake eggs in the nesting boxes especially and doing other things to help prevent egg eating in general (nice article from the Learning Center) https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/six-tips-on-breaking-your-egg-eater

 

[AliceSaurus]

Thanks! I'll probably have to give one chicken away because it appears to be a late developing rooster - I cracked the good egg open and there is what I think is a blastoderm (little white target sign) in the yolk I never saw them mate and never heard a crow but if the egg is fertile then that is a pretty clear answer. Here's a photo of it... my finger looks scary because I tweaked the image for clarity.

 

[AliceSaurus]

I will be thrilled if that is not a blastoderm!

 

[bobbi-j]

Unless you watch them all day long, you may not see them mate. It doesn't take long. May I ask why you're concerned about a fertile egg?

 

[AliceSaurus]

Thanks for your reply! I am concerned about a fertilized egg because roosters are illegal where I live. And so far, I have no definitive evidence that my suspect bird is a male, so i thought a fertilized egg would solve the mystery. It has huuuge comb and wattles compared to the other buff orpington (who is definitely a pullet) but not much larger than my barred rock who laid the egg today. Here are my buff orpingtons both 21 weeks old:

 

[AliceSaurus]

Another:

 

[AliceSaurus]

Just for comparison, this is the girl who laid the egg, and she also has very large comb and wattles and is the dominant one of the three.

 

[bobbi-j]

Hmm, it does look suspicious when compared to the other buff. Actually, I have a bird that looks just like that, that I haven't been able to figure out, either. And I've had chickens long enough that I should know better

. Mine is a Freedom Ranger, that due to being very fast and determined, escaped the hatchet on both butchering days. Some days I look at it and think rooster, and other days I think hen. In your case, I'd just wait it out and see what happens. Maybe your "buffs" aren't true BOs (or at least one of them, anyway). You could start looking around now to find it a home just in case it does crow.