My hens are eating their eggs...all of a sudden!!!!

[Beekissed]

Rats and snakes can clean you OUT about this time of the year and you won't even know where they are getting in. I'm with the others who state it is rarely chickens eating the eggs but more like chickens cleaning up the residue of eggs already damaged or eaten. Sometimes they will lay a fragile or soft shelled egg that will burst in the nest and they will clean it up quickly. I'd say, if you are walking in and out on a particular day and you salvaged eggs that day, it is probably more due to your presence warding off your egg thief.

Kept chickens many years and never had an "egg eater", let alone a whole flock of egg eaters. Check for rats...also black snakes. Where you find one you may find another as both the eggs and the rats are snake food. Poison for the rats and moth balls for the snakes....don't let the chickens eat either remedy!

 

[WoodlandWoman]

If your nests are always full of chickens, but you are not getting a lot of eggs, it may be because some of those chickens have gone broody. This is a prime time for chickens to go broody. They stop laying eggs and just sit in the nest, whether they have a clutch of eggs under them or not.

Try peeking in on them at night and see if any are still on the nest. That will give you a great idea of who's broody, if that's the problem.

 

[Equine_Angel]

That would make most sense about them just going through the whole broody stage. The only snakes we have here are the tiny garter snakes.

I will check on them later today to see what they are up to.

Thanks everyone

 

[WestKnollAmy]

If your hens are broody you will know it by their actions.
I go into the nests every day and get out the eggs. if a hen is on the nest she just sits idle while I reach under her and get the eggs. If she is broody she will fluff up, scream at me and sometimes pinch the fire out of my hand or arm. I get the eggs anyhow since I only let them set on certain ones.
Also you can take them off the nest and set them down. They may choose to set there on the ground if they are still in the process of laying an egg but if mine are broody they will stand up, fluff out like a turkey and stomp off, mad at the world. In 15 minutes they are back on the nest.