My chickens ate their first egg

[DarkAngel77]

Is it normal for them to eat their first egg? Is it likely to happen again? Also, any advice on how to prevent it from happening?

We finally got our first egg, I'm not even sure who laid it, whoever laid it didn't do an egg song. I just happened to see one of my buff orpingtons carrying something in her beak and I went to check it out and discovered she was carrying an egg.

Also, any guesses on who possibly laid it? I'm not sure how clear it is in the pictures but it looked a bit pinkish in color, like a very light pink.

I have buff orpingtons, speckled sussex, and isa browns (almost 18 weeks)
Silver laced wyandotte and leghorn (almost 17 weeks, I know not the leghorn) and a smokey pearl that is almost 16 weeks.

 

[2ndTink]

You'll want to squelch that ASAP, chickens love eggs, it's a hard thing to break. Put some fake eggs in the nesting box, curtains can help on the front of the nesting boxes too, and make sure they have oyster shell available even if they are on layer feed.

Some people fill the shells with mustard and say that works.

 

[aart]

Is it normal for them to eat their first egg? Is it likely to happen again? Also, any advice on how to prevent it from happening?

First eggs are often weak shelled and a cracked or broken eggs is fair game for eating.
Yes, it could happen again.
What all and how exactly are you feeding?
Do your birds free range?
Do you have nests set up in the coop with good bedding and fake eggs?

 

[DarkAngel77]

You'll want to squelch that ASAP, chickens love eggs, it's a hard thing to break. Put some fake eggs in the nesting box, curtains can help on the front of the nesting boxes too, and make sure they have oyster shell available even if they are on layer feed.

Some people fill the shells with mustard and say that works.

I will definitely try the curtains thing. There's fake eggs in nesting boxes already. I have been keeping oyster she'll out for a couple weeks now, I wasn't sure when to put it out but figured that when the oldest ones were 16 weeks would be a good time. I don't feed layer feed though.

 

[DarkAngel77]

First eggs are often weak shelled and a cracked or broken eggs is fair game for eating.
Yes, it could happen again.
What all and how exactly are you feeding?
Do your birds free range?
Do you have nests set up in the coop with good bedding and fake eggs?

I feed nutrena naturewise starter/grower, currently, but as soon as they are done with the rest of the bag I am switching to purina flock raiser, they also have oyster shell on the side. I also do give extras, like fruit and veggies scraps, as well as meal worms. They are fed from a 5 gal bucket with feeding ports, as soon as I open the coop in the mornings I take the covers for the feed off and they stay uncovered until they go in the coop, so they have access to food all day.

They don't free range, but they do have a fenced area that they spend all day in.

They do have nesting boxes with straw nesting pads, and fake eggs.

 

[Red Horse]

Just make sure you collect the real eggs as quickly as possible so they only ones they can peck at are the fake ones, they should forget about it.

 

[DarkAngel77]

Just make sure you collect the real eggs as quickly as possible so they only ones they can peck at are the fake ones, they should forget about it.

Today it happened so fast, my husband was outside and I had stepped outside and that's when I seen one of them carrying something and I ran to investigate and saw it was an egg. My husband said that none did an egg song or made any noises outside of their normal noises.

I plan to be outside tomorrow about the same time to try and keep an eye out for any that goes in the coop to try and collect the egg before they eat it again, and hopefully will be able to figure out forsure which one is laying.

 

[2ndTink]

They can be sneaky! Hopefully they just got excited over something new career egg eaters are so aggravating.

 

[DarkAngel77]

Update: No egg yesterday, but noticed an egg on the coop floor this morning when I let them out. It does have a small hole on the top where I think it was stepped on, I don't think anyone tried to eat it because only the shell was broken a little bit, but I could be wrong.

Also, I feel like it was two different chickens that laid these eggs, or is it possible that they were laid by the same one, just the 1st one was lighter color since it was the first egg?

 

[aart]

Update: No egg yesterday, but noticed an egg on the coop floor this morning when I let them out. It does have a small hole on the top where I think it was stepped on, I don't think anyone tried to eat it because only the shell was broken a little bit, but I could be wrong.

Also, I feel like it was two different chickens that laid these eggs, or is it possible that they were laid by the same one, just the 1st one was lighter color since it was the first egg?

Probably not the same bird...and it does look like a toe poke.
You can expect a few or more odd eggs as they get started laying.