# Chicken eating egg!



## b_elms (Mar 23, 2014)

One of my hens just started laying. Yesterday was our first egg. To day I went in the coop and I had put an egg from the store in there to help promote them to start laying. They had eaten it. I could only find shells. And no egg of her own where found today. How do I make sure they don't start eating there eggs? What to do! 


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## nj2wv (Aug 27, 2013)

From my experience , my hens only eat an egg if it breaks or has a weak shell. I see them tap an egg with their beak and try to roll it under them. Since store bought eggs have much weaker shells than our home farm eggs , I would think maybe it may have cracked so they ate it. 


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## ChickEnvy (May 25, 2013)

Use some fake eggs, I like the ceramic kind. You can order off of the internet or if you have a Cracker Barrel restaurant they sell them too. It trains the hens and they learn that pecking at them will not work. I use them allot, just need to disinfect with bleach when they get dirty. It takes a few more months of laying for a new hen to get her instincts on eggs and being broody. Good luck! 


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## hildar (Oct 3, 2013)

Try adding in the plastic easter eggs, I have used them for years. It works to. I figured since my kids had about 100 of them in the closet, I might as well use them for something. If you go into dollar general right after Easter you will find them about 25 cents for 10 to 12 in a package. Cheap and they last for a long long time.


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## b_elms (Mar 23, 2014)

I have lots of the plastic Easter eggs left over from my kids. I'll try using some of them. Also it's been two days now sense we found our first egg. Do they have a slow start?


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## piglett (Jun 21, 2012)

i like golf balls too


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## hellofromtexas (Feb 16, 2014)

I like plastic easter eggs. I like them because they are on clearance and they have a good egg shape.

Be sure the egg eating isn't coming from a nutrition problem of low protein or low calcium.


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## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

If they just started laying they won't be consistent. Their bodies need to go through their cycles and get everything in working order. Just be patient 

I also steal all hubby's golfballs for the nest boxes.


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## b_elms (Mar 23, 2014)

I was also wondering. With the EE the eggs seem to be different colors. And I have three of those. An I am getting three different colors? Will they always lay the same color of egg? Or can that change? 


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## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

They may get lighter coloured towards the end of their laying cycle but they will never change colour. The application of pigments is he same, it's just that there's less pigment to go round the longer their laying. So if they start out as olive green, they won't be teal a few days later they'll remain the same shade, and just get slightly paler.


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## seth3000 (Apr 29, 2014)

b_elms said:


> One of my hens just started laying. Yesterday was our first egg. To day I went in the coop and I had put an egg from the store in there to help promote them to start laying. They had eaten it. I could only find shells. And no egg of her own where found today. How do I make sure they don't start eating there eggs? What to do!
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Chicken Forum


Disturbing cannibalism...


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## dcfrenkel (Nov 1, 2012)

I poked two holes in a few eggs and blew out the contents for scrambled eggs and then filled the eggs with plaster of paris. That works for me.

Also, if you think your girls are eating their eggs I would combine the use of "dummy eggs" with collecting the eggs as quickly as you can for a week or two so that the only thing they have to peck at is the dummy eggs and they won't get lucky with a real egg. 

Science has proven that inconsistent rewards are the most potent reinforcers.


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## dcfrenkel (Nov 1, 2012)

seth3000 said:


> Disturbing cannibalism...


It is not cannibalism any more than a child eating it's own buggers or chewing fingernails or accidentally swallowing an eyelash is cannibalism.


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## matt_kas (Mar 11, 2013)

I've never done this but some people use a syringe and needle and put hot sauce in the egg and put it back in the coop, they peck open the egg and they don't like the spicy ( ha imagine that, chickens won't eat something !) it's worth a try

Matt
Japanese bantam & partridge rock bantam. breeder
Www.poultryrocks.com


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## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

I add cayenne pepper to my chickens feed every so often as a parasite deterrent. Spiciness doesn't bother them in the least. 
I should think that the "fill the egg with something else" trick, if it works, just makes them not find what they are looking for. 

I've always put golfballs in the nest and never had a problem with egg eating. If an egg breaks, well then it is free game, and I will see the remnants of a busted egg in the nest box, usually on top of other eggs they haven't touched. They are opportunistic creatures for sure, and will eat something if they find it, doesn't necessarily mean they will or can go out of their way to get more. I'd say that is what happened to the store bought egg.


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