Hi all, Really need some opinions and reassurance hopefully. We have two Gingernut Ranger hybrid hens which we've had a week. Today one of the girls laid her first ever egg. She laid it in the run as maybe she didn't realise to go to the nest box, and when I went in to poo pick this evening I rather stupidly trod on it, I just didn't see it. They both ran over to investigate the sound and had maybe a couple of little pecks at it before I managed to distract them without their treat bowl. Do you think they will now deliberately peck open their eggs from now on? Would they have got a taste for the egg? I'm really worried my own stupidity could have cost us our supply of eggs. Many thanks for your thoughts.
There is very, very little chance that this incident is going to cause any issue at all with egg-eating -- the crushed egg had no resemblance to the intact egg by the time they realized what a tasty treat it was. I wouldn't give it another thought.
In my 4 years of keeping chickens, I have had eggs that have been accidentally broken by the hens and thankfully they haven't turned into egg eaters even though they have partially eaten the egg. Ol gray mare is right, you shouldn't worry about this incident
