What causes hens to eat their eggs?

[lvng4myLrd]

I have 13 hens, 1 rooster, 5 babies which will be 2 months old on the 7th of July. one of them I am not sure which one it is who occassionally will eat their egg. Does anyone have any ideas as to why they are doing this, and what I can do to stop them from doing it in the future.

 

[CMV]

They eat their eggs for a variety of reasons. They may have a protein deficiency which is easy to fix by changing their diet. They may have acquired the taste for eggs, and who doesn't love eggs? Unfortunately, it's a tough habit to break once it's started. Aside from collecting the eggs as often as possible, there is little that can be done. Some folks have designed special nesting boxes that allow the eggs to roll out of reach once they are laid thereby protecting the eggs by rendering them inaccessible. Some folks put the nesting boxes in a darkened area of the coop because chickens will not eat when it is dark, so the rationale is that chickens won't eat eggs out of dark boxes. I used dummy eggs made out of wood in my boxes when I had some eggs getting eaten. A couple pecks at a solid wood egg discouraged that behavior pretty quickly. A last thing to consider is finding the culprit and culling that bird out of your flock. This is the usual method of dealing with this problematic behavior.

Good luck.

 

[Tiramisu]

Could be hungry, or they just peck at them a bit, then it cracks and they find out stuff is inside it and then eat it. Best thing to do is try to collect them early or set up the nest boxes to the egg rolls out when layed.