My hen eats her eggs!

[Silkie Mummy]

One of my Isa Brown hens, Hazel, has started laying a few days ago, but she eats her eggs. Fair enough, they are after all her eggs, but it makes an awful sticky mess in the henhouse and adds quite a bit of time to my daily round of morning chores. Does anyone know if this is normal behaviour and if Hazel will eventually stop doing this? Or even WHY she she is doing this?
Thanks!

 

[Jane Jill Jack]

Most of my hens have eaten eggs from the nests, either they accidently come upon it themselves or learn from others. I fixed this by putting some golf balls in the nests and gathering the real eggs. The golf balls hurt their beaks and they soon learn it's not worth it to peck anymore.

 

[2468Chickensrgr8]

Agree with the above post ...

 

[Smoky73]

Some hens will do this, and once they get a taste of it, sometimes you won't be able to get them to stop aside from culling her or selling her to someone else.
I have used golfballs, plastic eggs, terra cotta eggs, eggs filled with everything under the sun (hot sauce, pepper etc) and some birds will not stop no matter what you do.
However, it could be a vitamin deficiency, and I have successfully stopped a few hens from doing it by boiling up and feeding her as many eggs as she will eat, every day, for a week and sometimes, that will get them to eventually quit.

The problem with the above post is some hens are not as stupid as we think they are. Once a hen lays an egg, it is warm and then they turn around and eat it as soon as its laid. No amount of golf balls will help them when they are smart enough to know which "golf ball" is still warm as it just popped out of her.

 

[shuizar209]

Try emptying out an egg and filling it with mustard. When she pecks at it she willget a lovely surprise.

 

[Silkie Mummy]

Many thanks for the replies! I will give each of them a go. In fact I am boiling a couple of eggs at this moment, I have borrowed some golf balls from my husband and I have a jar of mustard in the house. Hopefully either or all of these tips will work.