Chickens eating eggs...

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hmmm... maybe my nesting boxes are too low... not a problem I am overly worried about since I can easily move the boxes up. My silly girls lay "all over the place" in the nest boxes, on the coop floor, in the run... I do havea white light but I also have a red light heat lamp. I have been collecting the eggs more frequently in the last few days... Hopefully that will help some. Though, I'm not sure why they go after the eggs in the nest boxes adn not the ones laying around the coop/run (I'll increase the height of the nest boxes to see if that makes a difference)

Thank you for everyone's help adn input. I appreciate it!
 
Thanks for all this info. regarding hens egg eating habits. Ours have just begun laying in the last 2 weeks and today one laid her egg while sitting on her favorite roost. She had gone into the nesting box and seemed very distressed, first time she's acted like this. Any rate, came out, got up on the top roost, laid the egg, which of course fell and cracked upon hitting the straw on the ground below. All three of the hens, then began pecking at the cracked egg. They ate the some of the shell and then the yolk. OMG what do I do? Will this now become a bad habit? Up to this incident they have been taking turns laying in the enclosed box. It's quite spacious, all three can fit in there. But, usually one goes in, makes a nest hollow in the straw lays her egg and come out and the next one goes in. They have not bothered the eggs in the box. Was this outside egg incident just a fluke? Or, do I have a potential problem brewing? I appreciate any advice you experienced hen keepers can offer.
barnie.gif
 
I find that keeping wooden or ceramic eggs in most of the nest boxes to be helpful. I initially only had the fake eggs in there to encourage laying the the nest boxes but after occasionally finding a pecked egg and one egg completely broken I decided to leave the fake eggs in there. I think when they do peck the fake eggs and realize they can't they kind of think they are all the same. But I have read a lot on here that if they ever start it is really hard for them to stop. Roll-a-way nest boxes might be your only other option to culling.
 
I can't access the back of the nesting boxes... mind you I could prolly still get to the back of it if I used flexible plastic...
 
kjfrogster41 said:
Thanks for all this info. regarding hens egg eating habits. Ours have just begun laying in the last 2 weeks and today one laid her egg while sitting on her favorite roost. She had gone into the nesting box and seemed very distressed, first time she's acted like this. Any rate, came out, got up on the top roost, laid the egg, which of course fell and cracked upon hitting the straw on the ground below. All three of the hens, then began pecking at the cracked egg. They ate the some of the shell and then the yolk. OMG what do I do? Will this now become a bad habit? Up to this incident they have been taking turns laying in the enclosed box. It's quite spacious, all three can fit in there. But, usually one goes in, makes a nest hollow in the straw lays her egg and come out and the next one goes in. They have not bothered the eggs in the box. Was this outside egg incident just a fluke? Or, do I have a potential problem brewing? I appreciate any advice you experienced hen keepers can offer.
barnie.gif
Click to expand...
Just because your hens ate an egg that was broken does not necessarily mean they will start eating eggs. It is a natural instinct for them to clean up any eggs that get accidently broken. They do this to prevent attracting predators.
 
Had a problem with broken eggs - turned out to be something I didn't expect:

I would find broken eggs in the nestboxes and for the longest time thought our ladies were eating them. My partner was ready to make a "Henrietta stew" (she being the one he suspected).

One morning when I was around, I took an egg from under Henrietta while she was still sitting on it, to save it. I felt a little bad, so replaced it with a ping-pong ball. She gave me a weird look as she settled down onto it slowly, but I think she was okay with it. ; )

A bit later I heard a pecking sound in the coop, and rushed in to see if I could catch one of them in the act.

It ended up that our thief was a scrub jay- he'd been sneaking in and stealing them!

(Now to figure out how to keep him out of the coop...)

Thought I'd share. We were both so sure the ladies were eating their own!
 

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