I have had 2 large sexlink chicken eggs broken in the last 5 days-in the nest. The sexlink is a pretty slim bird who lays huge eggs, she is my only 1+ year old. A 6 month old pullet "suspect" is a hefty Marans. The nest is made up of 2 milk crates-on stacked atop the other. Here is the clincher, to add some weight to this set up, I recently placed a spare piece of counter granite in the bottom of the "nest" milk crate, the Marans is heavy enough to topple the nest without it. The first time I found a broken egg it was pretty obvious when I looked in the nest. I thought the heavy chicken had squooshed it between her body and the granite causing it to break. I cleaned the nest, removed the remains of the egg and put more straw in the milk crate. Today I saw the Sexlink in the nesting box as usual, went to check for eggs at noon, found only a Marans egg. After pawing around in the nest I found the broken egg- pretty well hidden under the straw, the granite piece was wet. I removed the granite piece and will keep an eye out. There are other nests the Marans might lay in if this one proves unstable. Any thoughts from the experienced out there- could this be accidental and removing the granite make it a solved case...or?
