They ate an egg...help

[cherylcohen]

Well this has never happened...yikes

Plenty of food (organic layer) and treats in the coop, happy girls, etc...I went out this morning and one of the eggs that was laid in the am was cracked open in the nesting box. It's yoke was gone but the white was stuck to the pine shavings. Why did they do that?

We've had a very rough few days or thunderstorms etc and I'm wondering if that made them stressed enough to eat an egg. What should I do???

It was our easter egger egg...would she have eaten her own egg?

 

[Mandalina]

One of my Bo's cracked open and ate one of my banty's eggs recently, so i cant wait to see what the experts have to say on this!

 

[Wynette]

OH, goodness. There are TONS of posts out there about this. I had a major problem a bit over a year ago, and here are tips that really helped me:

Put a cover over your nest boxes: I simply cut an old sheet that would cover my nest boxes, nailed it on, and cut a slit in the middle so they could poke their heads through to get in & out. The idea is, out of sight, out of mind...they lay, leave, then can't see the egg, so don't think about eating it.

Put some ceramic or wooden eggs in the nest box: The idea is that they peck at them to break them, find them way too hard to break, and give up.

Give them lots of other things to do: hang a suet feeder stuffed with greens - get a Purina Flock Block for them to peck at - put boxes/bins/large logs/old chairs/anything they can jump on in their run so they have things to explore. If you keep them busy doing other things, they won't look for things like eating eggs.

The very best advice: Collect OFTEN. If you collect the eggs many times a day, like hourly if at all possible, you'll get the eggs before they do. I had trouble with this, as I work full time. I enlisted the help of neighbors for about a week to collect for me.

It becomes a habit quickly, and you need to break the habit. So, be consistent. I did ALL of the things above, and in a 7-10 days, my girls stopped and (knock wood) never started back up.

 

[cherylcohen]

We already have the ceramic eggs in there but I'll put a few extra in. I'll add some extra treats and things to jump on. They are probably mad and bored because they have been "cooped" up without any outside time, also the run had been flooded for a day.

Not so sure about covering the nesting boxes I have a few that are just about ready to lay and I wouldn't want to get confused.

Any other ideas out there???

 

[cherylcohen]

Also if they are eating the eggs are they lacking something or just bored. I can't imagine they are lacking protein I give them tons plus the layer feed