Chicken eating it's eggs???? Help ???

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Beatrice5

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I am a first time chicken owner :)

Need the help of you hen eggsperts :)

My girls ( only have 2 Gersy Giants) have started eating their eggs. Only get one a day between the two of them and saw an egg yesterday afternoon and thought I'll get that after tea with the kids and when we came out it was gone and a goey mess under the straw ....? I am assuming as they are right by the house and a cat would not eat the shell that the chickens have eaten it themselves. Why when they have unlimited access to layers mash and crushed oyster shell and are free range over garden and paddock and have veggie scraps so why are they eating the eggs?

Any comments advice appreciated.
 
From the Little hen rescue website, where we got our ex battery girls:

Egg breaking or egg eating

Hens are clumsy when first out of farms, some have never seen their eggs before let alone laid them in straw nest boxes!

They may stand on them and break them accidently, if this happens they will eat them. Try not to worry they will learn not to stand on them.

If later on, they purposely eat eggs, again its for the same reasons as above.

Things to try..

- Remove the eggs quickly in morning to break the cycle and never leave eggs lying around

- Add mustard to the eggs to put them off eating them again

- Distract hens

It is also a sign of hen lacking in protein, feed them something high in protein like sardines, tuna, meal worms, cheese or cat biscuits soaked in water until soft.


Hope that helps.
 
My chickens used to do this, I was told to take the shell of an egg and fill it with mustard and put it in their nest. Did that, and it worked! 1 taste of it and they never done it again!!! Good luck!
 
Do you have crows or magpies, where I used to work the magpies used to go inside the roost and break into and eat them we thought it was the chickens till we undertook survailence (sp), the only answer we found was to remove them first thing...early bird gets the egg!
 
if the chicken has eaten the shell give them some oyster shell to help themselves to but youl have to keep removing the eggs so they dont continue to eat them. or its that the shell didnt form at all. one of my hens used to lay and egg that had no shell. was the strangest thing, there just wasnt enuf calcium to form the egg so feed grit that has oyster sheel in it.
 
I would leave a "fake" egg in the nest box then they get bored of tapping eggs and getting nowhere. The national trust does a convincing hard rubber egg at the moment.

Also try adding some apple cider vinegar to their water I find it generally improves condition of the hens, laying and the shell itself.
 
Lots of good advice there another tip is to have the nesting box with a slight slope so the egg rolls away into a "gutter" that the hen can't reach ad you cann collect the egg.
Jersey Giars are quite big and she ay have started by stading on the egg as she got up and thought it was tastey (Or you could have a smart hedgehog visiting?)
 
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