my chickens are still eating their eggs

[laboroflove]

My only experience with egg eaters always ended up with rehoming them. My last flock were all perfect girls. Laid their eggs and left them alone. I decided to add some mature hens to increase my numbers. Huge mistake and quite possibly the last time I will add any more mature birds to any flock of mine. The hens I added ended up being egg eaters (hence the reason they were given away I suppose) and taught my good girls to be bad. I couldn't break the habit (not for lack of trying) and I ended up giving them to someone I met at work with the warning that some are egg eaters. Well now they are thriving and laying eggs and NOT eating them (as far as she knows). They were free range with access to a house with nest boxes at my place and at their new home they are free range as well but no nest boxes nor proper house yet. They make nests where ever they deem necessary. Maybe she just isn't noticing the eaten eggs... Anyway I have new chickens and they are thriving and doing very well. I wish you luck with your chickens but do realize that you may have to start over.

 

[I Love Feather Babies]

my chickens have recently started eating their eggs. there seems to be no nutritional problems regarding their feed so i installed rolling nest boxes in order to stop them from accessing the egg so they stopped laying in the nesting boxes and started laying the eggs randomly around the coop and eating them. they’re really driving me crazy.

I have an Easter egger that has started laying again after winter vacation. For some reason her egg gets eaten but the others are left alone. The only reason I know she is laying again is I find small pieces of her green shell stuck to other eggs.

 

[Iluveggers]

I have an Easter egger that has started laying again after winter vacation. For some reason her egg gets eaten but the others are left alone. The only reason I know she is laying again is I find small pieces of her green shell stuck to other eggs.

Is her egg shell weak so that the egg breaks when it hits the nest box?

 

[I Love Feather Babies]

Is her egg shell weak so that the egg breaks when it hits the nest box?

Possibly. I have managed to get a couple and while I was washing one it broke in my hands. They have oyster shell available at all times. I’ve been having to replace it more often here lately.

 

[Saveria]

There was an article on here talking about using curtains on the nesting boxes with a slit in the center, so they can get in out, but don't see them after they are laid. I'll bet you can look up nesting box curtains and get some good info. Maybe they will decide to lay somewhere else again, but it is probably worth a shot.

Mine eat eggs every now and again, but never stuck with it. It may be because we feed the highest quality feed we can. It may seem like more money, but you are basically paying to have less problems.

Some of mine seem to want the other eggs out of the box before they lay, and they can get broken that way, and then they eat them. They don't do that when there is a bunch of hay in there, though, so I try to fill them up frequently.

 

[laboroflove]

Possibly. I have managed to get a couple and while I was washing one it broke in my hands. They have oyster shell available at all times. I’ve been having to replace it more often here lately.

Have you had fecals checked? Maybe there are parasites at play here keeping them from absorbing the nutrients they are needing. Just makes me wonder if that could be a reason for fragile eggs when they are clearly eating oyster shell.

 

[I Love Feather Babies]

Have you had fecals checked? Maybe there are parasites at play here keeping them from absorbing the nutrients they are needing. Just makes me wonder if that could be a reason for fragile eggs when they are clearly eating oyster shell.

Would you take it to a vet to check, or send it somewhere?

 

[laboroflove]

Would you take it to a vet to check, or send it somewhere?

A vet should be able to check

 

[dirkandlorie]

My beloved Betty is an aggressive egg eater. I have tried everything I've heard of on this site to stop it, nothing worked. It got real bad when she taught some of the other chickens to eat eggs also, then it got worse and she started pecking and eating them as the eggs were coming out of the other chickens! She is a 9 year old red sex link that I refuse to cull, wanna see just how old sex links can live. My solution was to use chicken wire to partition off a 5x8 section of the coop. Betty and a couple of the other older girls roost in there for the night. When I've collected eggs for the day I let them out to play with their flockmates. When she stopped eating eggs (no opportunity to), the others stopped too. Good luck with your egg eater

 

[kaitbird9]

I know right!
It's supposed to get them to think that's how the eggs taste

I did this multiple times and my chickens still ate the whole eggs mustard and all