How to stop egg eaters

[Peter_Rabbit_Farm]

I have a coop of 30 hens, and I have been having problems with egg eating. There are only one or two eggs in the nest box, and a ton of sticky yellow egg everywhere.

I feed a layer feed, with a acess to grit/oyster shell at all times. As well as some dog food for extra protein.

At first I thought it was a nesting box problem but the egg eating keeps happening. I than realized this morning that my oldest hen (6 years, sex-link) is laying soft shelled eggs. So that may be what started the problem. But now it is all the eggs. I know which hen is the culprit, a leghorn (2 years)

So I was thinking of buying ceramic eggs to try teaching the hen that the eggs are not for eating. Another idea I had was to make a roll away nest box. Below are photos of the nest boxes in that coop
(I have two coops connected as one) the photos were taken before the problem

Does anyone have any ideas on how to stop this.

I don’t want to cull the leghorn, because she is one of my better show birds.

 

[Ozarkoak]

Wew. Are you saying that one bird is eating 20+ eggs a day? I would collect eggs as often as I could, do your golf ball or ceramic egg thing, give them as much to do as I could. Myself? I would be thinking super hard on the benefits of show birds vs. fresh eggs. From my experience once a hen starts eating eggs it will pretty much teach the other hens to do the same thing. Your slanted egg box is another good idea. Good luck.

 

[Peter_Rabbit_Farm]

Wew. Are you saying that one bird is eating 20+ eggs a day? I would collect eggs as often as I could, do your golf ball or ceramic egg thing, give them as much to do as I could. Myself? I would be thinking super hard on the benefits of show birds vs. fresh eggs. From my experience once a hen starts eating eggs it will pretty much teach the other hens to do the same thing. Your slanted egg box is another good idea. Good luck.

I don’t know if it is just her, she is the only one I see.

 

[GravityWaves]

I'm wondering if there isn't enough "padding" from the hay in your nest boxes? Once they get in there, scratch around a bit, and finally settle down there might not be much left directly underneath them. Then if there isn't much under them when they pop an egg out it could crack a little and, in my experience, that leads to curious pecking and then egg eating.
I had this issue when my first girls started laying. I finally observed and they were scratching the shavings down to nothing right under them. I added a higher lip on the nest boxes so the shavings were deeper and I've never had that issue again. I also just helped a friend with the same thing-after a couple days he's getting 2-3X more eggs now.

Maybe adding some shavings down in the "bowl" of the nests with the hay would help give more padding?

 

[rosemarythyme]

I would definitely look into rollaway nests, especially if you don't want to cull known egg eaters.

 

[Peter_Rabbit_Farm]

I would definitely look into rollaway nests, especially if you don't want to cull known egg eaters.

I already started making one last night. Do you have any suggestions on the angle. So the eggs don’t break

 

[Peter_Rabbit_Farm]

here is the roll away nest box I whipped together

 

[rosemarythyme]

I already started making one last night. Do you have any suggestions on the angle. So the eggs don’t break

I don't have one so not sure what the "proper" angle is on it. Since it looks like you've already whipped one up, give it a week and see how it goes, and adjust if needed. Really hope this makes the difference for you!