My girls are eating their own eggs???

[lizygizzy]

My girls have started eating their own eggs.
Usually I check the coop several times a day getting warm, fresh eggs. Over the last couple days I noticed them pecking wet spots in the wood chips on the floor of theiravior?
In fact, the shells appear to be absent too causing me to think they're eating the shells to.
What can I do to stop/prevent my girls from this behavior.

 

[jennymay]

Bad news as an egg eater will teach the others to eat eggs too. We had to watch carefully and find the original culprit. We got rid of her and the others stopped eating eggs. Bummer.

 

[Idahomestead]

My hens will eat the occasional egg, but don't do it on a regular basis. You just need to make sure they are getting enough calcium and protein in their diet.

 

[Chickenlover14]

Put a fake egg in there when she peck at it it wont bust .. The after a while she will give up

 

[Imp]

Without seeing shell, maybe they are laying shellless eggs?

Egg eating is a tough problem. There are several things you can try. They have varying degrees of success.

Blowing out an egg and filling with horseradish, hot mustard, or liquid soap.
Roll away nest boxes.
Collecting often.
Increasing the protein in their diets,
or in your case maybe the calcium.
darken the nest boxes, some people put "curtains" in front of the boxes.
I had success breaking mine several years ago by rearranging the coop. I think I disturbed their normal patterns.

Good luck,

Imp

 

[lizygizzy]

Thanks for your replies.
I do collect several times a day. I have to admit that I have heard of shell-less eggs. Bur it never occurred to me that the absence of shell fragments might be an indicator of shell-less eggs.
Thanks again for the tips.

 

[Ariel301]

Tricking them with an egg full of horseradish or some other spicy thing won't do any good. Birds are not bothered by spicy foods.

Egg eaters usually eat the shell too.

Really, the best thing to do with egg eaters is the crock pot. It's pretty much impossible to "reform" them (short of doing something so they physically can't break the eggs, like debeaking or switching to a roll out style nest box where they can't get to the eggs) and if you give them to a new home, they will likely continue the behavior and others will learn it from them. If you add birds to your flock of egg eaters, the new ones will learn to do it. So, unless they're just going to be yard ornaments, the birds become pretty useless.