Oh no... *hits head*

[BarredCometLaced]

So I was out cleaning my coop today, and I have gotten into the habit of throwing the old bedding into the run for the chickens to scratch at. WELL. I guess that one of the chickens must have buried an egg in the bedding that ended up being thrown into the run. The egg had a crack in it, I did not see it, and when I turned my back they began voraciously eating away at it! There was a group of three that pecked at and got a taste of the egg before I could snatch it away. Does this mean that whenever they see an egg now they will try to eat it? HELP!

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

No it doesn't mean they will necessarily turn into the dreaded "egg eaters."

However, DO make sure you have golf balls or fake eggs in the nestboxes so if they peck them they will receive no reward. Make sure your nestboxes are dark- some people put curtains in front of them.

 

[DavidKerk]

Sometimes they start that and sometimes they don't. I've accidentally dropped eggs, they've frozen, etc. and my chickens have ferociously cannibalized them, but they have never gotten into the habit. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.

If they do start egg eating, search "Egg Eating" here on BYC. There are many methods that attempt to get rid of this problem.

 

[donrae]

Mine have eaten many an egg in similar circumstances, sometimes I've even given them the egg. I've not had egg eating behaviors. In my experience there's a big difference between eating the yummy inside of a cracked egg and actually cracking the egg. I also feed the egg shells back to the flock and don't crush them or anything, just toss the halves in the run. Again, no egg eaters in 20 years.