Possible egg eater. Help!

[crchicks]

I have a hen that went broody in March. She hatched and took care of her babies and has been back to laying for a couple weeks. My problem is that I've been getting less eggs than normal, and I've had eggs go missing from the nesting box. I just saw my broody run out of the coop with an egg shell in her beak. There was still a yolk and white in the nest box when I checked but the entire egg shell was gone. They have oyster shell for calcium supplement so I don't know what could've caused this to start.

 

[The Angry Hen]

Put golf balls, wooden eggs or ceramic eggs into the nest, when they peck they eggs, they'll find out not to peck the eggs.

 

[aart]

Could be she is lacking animal protein.

Gather eggs often and replace with the fake eggs as suggested above.

 

[lovemyelement]

Same problem here. I did both, oyster shells for calcium and fake eggs. I also threw in some new toys to make sure they had something to keep them busy and entertained. I did this all immediately when I realized it was a hen and not an accidental break and it seems like I get about as many eggs as I have hens so it must have worked. But, if you have a broody those fake eggs are so tempting for them I have found. My broody gets excited and starts trying to hatch them. Silly hens. =)