My chickens have started eating their eggs. When I go to gather the eggs, I find empty shells where they’ve cracked them and eaten the yolks. I feed them Purina layena plus feed which is supposed to be a complete feed. Any suggestions on how to stop this?
Also how long do chickens live? These girls are probably 6-7 years old but they are still laying well. They are a red egg layer breed but not Rhode island reds.
could it be possible it’s something else? rats enjoy eggs and do not eat chickens.
experts on this forum (not me) have suggested extra calcium and oyster shells. good luck!
Provide them with crushed oysters free-choice and they will likely stop, however some develop the habit and never stop once they realize how much they enjoy the eggs.
I found mine only ate their eggs when they broke them by accident.
We changed the nest box around (instead of having three separate smaller boxes they now have one long big box) and so far they have not had any problem with broken (and then eaten) eggs.
I also agree add some crushed oyster shell for the calcium they need. That and maybe some habitat enrichment if they are closed in a coop.
Put some golf balls wherever they are laying their eggs. They’ll discover they get no reward for breaking the “eggs” and eventually stop.
Do they have a place to get out and scratch around? If the oyster shell doesn’t make a difference, I would try putting interesting stuff for them to mess around with, in case they are playing with the eggs out of boredom. I give mine all kind of things - random branches, hang up a cabbage, logs to stand on, different foods, plus I let them roam the back yard every now and then when the dogs aren’t back there.
I feel like this is obvious, but are you collecting the eggs daily?
I have had this problem as well. The golf balls seem to be helping and if I collect the eggs as often as possible that helps as well. I read somewhere that you can take a few eggs (mark them!) and inject them with mustard as a cure. That is my next step if the golf balls and collecting often do not work.
I was taught to get rid of those that eat eggs so as they don’t teach the habit.
When feeding egg shells you have to crush them so as they don’t look like eggs. You can also put in nesting boxes where the eggs roll to where the hens can’t reach them.
I’ve also heard that hens will do this when they aren’t getting enough protein. One of the more disgusting solutions was to give them (fresh) roadkill.
You can feed them a cheap cat food to up the protein too-I usually do that anyway and have no egg eaters.
Confinement makes it worse-I kept mine locked up until mid day or early afternoon and then let them out, they were happy to go do something other than eat eggs.
If nothing else, put the nesting boxes with a low roof, I think 9 inches? They have to stand to turn around and eat the egg, if the roof is too low they will get off and move on instead of turn around and eat.
IME, being a busy and not too obsessive chicken owner that doesn’t like to cull hens, I made the small nesting boxes and left them free ranging, picked up eggs early when I could. Any hen that was really hitting them hard got thrown outside and I would buy some ol roy for cats and feed them up.
I haven’t dealt with this first hand but a covered laying box can help too apparently
Very occasionally my hens will do this. When they do I create special eggs for them. I take an egg and put a small whole in it and blow out the contents. Then I fill it will mustard and hot sauce. After pecking into that egg they don’t try it for months after that.
Hot peppers have no effect on birds; a hot sauce/vinegar egg probably just disappoints them b/c it has no protein in it.
At least your hens are laying eggs.
My three 6yos & the 3yo have decided a Spring Molt is a Good Idea - no eggage here for the last 2 weeks.
I was actually forced to buy eggs today - Oh, the Shame!
Unless you have seen your hens eating eggs, I’d be inclined to blame rats.
I had a veritable Disneyworld of the nasty things that I never saw until they got so bold they poked their noses out when I filled the chicken feeder!
Correspondingly my egg supply dwindled until the little mf’ers made themselves known & I put down poison bait.*
*yes, I debated if this might mean my hens ate a poisoned rat.
{Knock Wood} they did not and I placed the baits as far down the rodent holes as I could.
[QUOTE=trubandloki;8131673]
I found mine only ate their eggs when they broke them by accident.
We changed the nest box around (instead of having three separate smaller boxes they now have one long big box) and so far they have not had any problem with broken (and then eaten) eggs.
I also agree add some crushed oyster shell for the calcium they need. That and maybe some habitat enrichment if they are closed in a coop.[/QUOTE]
Mine will eat the egg if it is broken. They do not leave anything behind. I know because there is dried yolk on the remaining egg(s). Picking up the eggs more was the best way to stop them because then the nests are not as full and eggs hopefully won’t get broken. I have 6 nests and will find 16 eggs crammed into 2 nest boxes :mad:
[QUOTE=cowboymom;8132633]
Hot peppers have no effect on birds; a hot sauce/vinegar egg probably just disappoints them b/c it has no protein in it.[/QUOTE]
I hesitated to offer the mustard/hot sauce remedy, but since it has worked on my gals wonderfully I thought I’d add it to the thread. If they are disappointed then I’m happy. 
Whatever works! :yes:
This is a very bad habit, and one that can be tough to break.
We went on vacation one time, and the girl I hired to care for the hens and collect eggs did not do a good job. She left the eggs too long in the nest boxes, and eggs started to get broken. Once they taste egg the game is on. By the time we returned home 2 weeks later every single hen was breaking eggs to get to the good stuff inside. We had to dispense with an entire flock (20) one year old hens. I was soooo mad!!
I am always diligent to avoid this bad habit. It usually starts as an accident. An egg gets broken by mistake, and some curious hen takes a taste. It can escalate quickly from there.
All of our flocks have golf balls in the nesting boxes from the very beginning. The minute chicks come out of the brooder and into a coop, they have piles of golf balls. By the time they are laying, they think pecking eggs just hurts beaks.
We collect eggs at least 2x a day.
We have ample box space. One box per 2-3 hens. Usually a whole flock (around 20 hens) will use the same 2 or 3 boxes, but they have options.
Our hens free range, have access to oyster shell and receive plenty of protein and calcium in their diet. Chickens will learn to break eggs if they are bored or lacking nutritionally. We don’t let those conditions happen.
If an egg is broken, we watch closely for a day or two and if we find a hen breaking eggs we get rid of her immediately. Of course, sometimes the roo’s learn to eat eggs. I HATE when that happens because a good roo is far harder to come by than a good hen.
Long story short, it is a really bad habit, hard to break and can cost an entire flock because one chicken breaking egg can lead to 20 chickens breaking eggs in a real short amount of time.
Good luck!!
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