Question: I got my first egg, and my chickens ate it. Any tips?

[summerfroggie]

Hello!

So this spring I got 6 new chicks. At 12 weeks old I slowly introduced them to our one old hen (who isn't laying anymore). At first she didn't like them, but then she got used to them and now they are all living together and I think they are getting along fine. We got our first egg today, but somebody pecked it and devoured the whole thing. It's really frustrating because I was trying to prevent this from happening and it happened with our first egg. I even put fake eggs in the coop awhile before so they if they should peck the fake eggs they would figure out that they don't break. Does anyone have some helpful advice? Has anyone been in this situation before? Thanks for any tips!

 

[aart]

Was the egg hard shelled or soft / thin shelled?
Soft thin or broken shelled eggs are fair game for eating because they break easily when stepped on.
If the shell was good and hard and laid on a surface that wouldn't have broken it, then you may have a problem.
I might suspect your older bird first off. Collect eggs as often as possible and look for yolky beaks.
Another trick I've just learned is to roll a fake egg out into the midst of all the birds and see who goes for it first.

 

[summerfroggie]

It was normal. A little small. The egg might have cracked because my chickens keep kicking the hay out of the nesting boxes. Our old hen has a reputation for pecking eggs in the past. Does anyone think that filling an egg with something that a chicken doesn't like, like something spicy or sour, will train the chicken to not want to peck eggs anymore? Or is that not a good idea? Thanks for the tips!

Teresa

 

[aart]

It was normal. A little small. The egg might have cracked because my chickens keep kicking the hay out of the nesting boxes. Our old hen has a reputation for pecking eggs in the past. Does anyone think that filling an egg with something that a chicken doesn't like, like something spicy or sour, will train the chicken to not want to peck eggs anymore? Or is that not a good idea? Thanks for the tips!

Teresa

Might be a good idea to separate your older hen to exclude or confirm her as the problem.
You don't want her teaching your new birds her old tricks.

From all I've read, the filling of eggs with various stuff doesn't really work.
They don't have 'spice' taste detectors so spicy stuff doesn't work.

Pullets will spend a lot of time scratching around in the nest at first, so maybe it was already broken.

 

[chickensforeggs]

I have 2 Ameracauna hens. One has been laying for a couple weeks. They are both 24 week old. Delilah started laying at 22 weeks. The other one, Martha, is not laying yet at 24 weeks. Should I just wait for her to start? She seems perfectly healthy.