Uh oh. I just checked for eggs and had an unpleasant surprise. egg eating?

[nlkuhner]

This is my first little flock. Eleanor is the first to lay, she started on Monday. I went out today and three of my four were in the hen house. They all came out and I threw down some scratch to occupy them while I checked things out. It looks like she laid an egg that broke during the process, thin shell material. The girls had definitely been in there getting a taste. It couldn't have been too long, its 10am here. I cleaned all the wet shavings etc out of the box & laid down new chips. It seems like most of the egg contents were still there, just a little scrambled. Are all my girls going to be egg eaters now?! What can I do to prevent this?

 

[Megan Amber]

This is my first little flock. Eleanor is the first to lay, she started on Monday. I went out today and three of my four were in the hen house. They all came out and I threw down some scratch to occupy them while I checked things out. It looks like she laid an egg that broke during the process, thin shell material. The girls had definitely been in there getting a taste. It couldn't have been too long, its 10am here. I cleaned all the wet shavings etc out of the box & laid down new chips. It seems like most of the egg contents were still there, just a little scrambled. Are all my girls going to be egg eaters now?! What can I do to prevent this?

Most likely it will be fine if you curb the problem now, I found out a trick and that is to peel a small white onion and place those in the nest boxes, they will peck those if they are egg eaters and will not like them and stop!

 

[Veer67]

My hens are egg eaters but will only eat eggs if they happen to fall on the ground or if they are cracked open on the ground. Surprisingly I've never really had a serious problem, they will eat eggs occasionally but I would say it's rare in my flock. Though when my hens eat their eggs they will leave no remains only some egg stains will be visible on the ground. I wouldn't worry about egg eating right now because your case isn't particularly serious yet.

 

[happyhens1972]

Don't worry, you do not have egg eaters at this stage. There isn't a chook on the planet that wouldn't eat an already cracked open egg so at any time you get one stepped on or broken, the girls will eat it and with gusto! However, an 'egg eater' is not a chook that eats egg, it is a chook that intentionally breaks the eggs open themselves in order to eat them.

You don't have anything at all to be concerned about at the moment and there's no reason to believe you'll end up with egg eaters over this. It is not at all unusual for the first few eggs to be thin-shelled and poor quality and the girls will naturally take advantage of a delicious and nutritious food source. Don't fret unless you begin to find eggs that have purposefull holes in them, where they have clearly been opened up on purpose x