My chickens are eating the eggs!

[CaptSaam]

My chickens have begun to eat the eggs. I feed them well, always keeping their feeder full and the waterer plentiful. Additionally I have a friend who works at a bakery and gives me day-old bread. Each day they start the day with plenty of bread or table scraps, veggie cuttings, and even cooked fresh fish carouses. They love it and eat it all up! But lately the the eggs have been disappointing. I can sometimes find some shell chips in the laying boxes or the remaining eggs are slimy from the missing eggs.
I have read up on this and there are some good suggestions but don't seem very feasible.

Does anyone have a construction plan for a laying box that the eggs can gently drop out of to be stored out of the chicken's reach until collected. Something that can be easily cleaned...

 

[so lucky]

There are some discussions for "roll away nest boxes" on here; you can use the search feature, but if you are feeding them lots of bread, table scraps and fruit and veggies, they may be eating those things rather than the protein and calcium rich pellets or crumbles. Believe me, bread is not that good for humans, let alone chickens.

 

[50-45-1]

I dont have any tips for roll away nests but have other ideas for our concideration.
If you are not using fake eggs you could pick up some golf balls and frustrate your egg eater when they dont break open and yield a tasty snack. It may help discourage th habit.
Also, are your nest boxes dark or well lit. Dark nest boxes will also discourage eating of eggs simply because chickens can not see well in the dark. They can not eat what they can not see.
If you can identify which chicken is eating the eggs you could put pinless peepers on her for a month or so and see if it breaks her of the habit.
Lastly, egg eating can be worse and harder to break if chickens are to tightly confined. The boredom leads to unwanted behaviors like feather picking along with egg eating. More space and things to scratch through and keep them occupied may help.
Good luck!

 

[rosemarythyme]

First off I'd cut way back on the extras - the bread especially.

@jthornton has a number of posts about homemade roll away boxes: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/roll-out-nest-box-mk4.1323734/#post-21587660

 

[aart]

Each day they start the day with plenty of bread or table scraps,

Not good IMO.

keeping their feeder full

Full of what exactly?

 

[starri33]

You Tube has excellent video's on roll away nests, my husband built me some which looks like a normal box, but it's got a flap and we used paint trays.. hen gets in, lays egg, she stands up and egg rolls down.. with the flap, she can't get to it.