Will Hens Move Eggs?

[MesMama]

I had one lay her egg under the roost the other day and I didn't see it until I shut the coop up for the night, they were all roosted already and so I didn't grab it because I didn't want to disturb them, figured I would grab it in the morning. But when I went back down it wasn't there and a couple more had laid under the nesting boxes (ugh lol!) So I wondered if they moved it? Or would they eat it?

 

[Judy]

They will eat it in a heartbeat if it is broken so they see (or smell, or whatever) the contents. But true "egg eating," where the hens break open eggs to eat them, is not very common and usually occurs in older flocks, perhaps in flocks who are also a bit protein deprived.

But yes, they will definitely move eggs. A sitting btroody turns her eggs several times a day during the incubation. They will kick them out of their nest. They will kick them to a different spot on the floor. They will even pick them up between their "throat" and neck to move them. The egg can also get caught on their underside, as between the wing and the body, and get moved that way.

 

[MesMama]

Wow! How interesting! I didn't see any remnants of the egg, not sure if there would even be any? So I'm thinking one of them moved it. Thanks for your reply!

 

[MesMama]

Oh and also, do you know why they lay in the boxes sometimes and then Other times they lay on the floor? We use a layer of wood chips and then a layer of straw, both on the floor and in the boxes.

 

[me here in uk]

I watched one of mine move an egg from one nest box to the next one

 

[MesMama]

Really? Chickens are interesting little creatures

 

[Judy]

Oh and also, do you know why they lay in the boxes sometimes and then Other times they lay on the floor? We use a layer of wood chips and then a layer of straw, both on the floor and in the boxes.

Not everything they do will make sense!

I used to have more chickens, and have a few different types of nests plus 3 or 4 spots in the coop they sometimes decide look like a good nest. When they were free range, one of them decided a particular cardboard box in another building was a good nest for several months, then returned to the coop nests. All of them switch around between nests. Things like freshness of hay, nests freshly treated for mites/lice, or pine chips instead of hay, don't seem to have any effect.

 

[threescompany]

I have a glass egg that I used to get them to lay in the nesting box instead of their favorite corner of the coop. One of them moved it from the nesting box to the favorite corner.