chickens eating eggs

I've tried all the normal advice, wooden eggs, making sure they have plenty of good food/water/calcium, making the nest boxes darker with curtains, and I still have chickens eating my eggs.  Is there anything else I can do short of culling them?  As near as I can tell, I have at least a half dozen that actively search out and eat the eggs.  A couple of the peck the chickens that are laying to try to get them to move so they can eat the eggs.  I had a day off work where I just stood and watched to see who was doing it and I caught half a dozen that were going into the boxes and pecking eggs.  I separated them for culling, but my lady talked me into putting the curtains on the boxes and giving them one more chance.  Mistake.  They ate all the eggs again.  Worst of all, some of them are teaching the others to do it.  I'm ready to cull the whole flock and start over.  Anyone have any other ideas?  I hate to cull any of my chickens, but feeding 40 chickens and getting 7 or 8 eggs a day isn't working for me.

Are the birds debeaked? Having a blunt tip makes it very hard to crack shells, also make sure there is adequate water

Scott Leonard wrote:Are the birds debeaked? Having a blunt tip makes it very hard to crack shells, also make sure there is adequate water

No, they aren't debeaked.  Frankly, I would much rather cull them than do that.  At least I know culling is stress free, quick and painless.  I give them something that they like to eat and dispatch them with a .22 through the brain.

I would never recommend debeaking the birds.

I have only ever had issues when my hens were low on calcium. It sounds like at this point it has turned into a habit. If it were my flock, I would cull those birds. I would also double down on making sure they are getting plenty of all the nutrients. I would also try to collect eggs more than once a day if possible. Perhaps look into the roll away nest boxes even, if the problem persists.

Out of curiosity, what is their feed made up of? I have read that low protein can be a reason for consuming eggs. I however have not run into this before.

Fresh Chicken for Dinner!
New baby chicks soon at Trace's house!

Golf balls do work to trick them, but it sounds like yours have gone past the point of tricks.

Fill the freezer, have a BBQ.
Try marinating chicken breasts in Italian salad dressing and grilling them. Hmm, it's good stuff!

Here are my thoughts - some are more for the "learning from experience for the future" perspective.

1. Yes, a few naughty birds will teach the others bad habits, from my experience.

2. This is why I like to have parallel infrastructure. The first thing I would do is separate all the ones you've observed doing the pecking. If the problem doesn't reappear in the "non-peckers" housing, culling everyone may not be necessary.

3. You say there's plenty of food and water, but are there some bullies chasing some birds away from the feeder? We had that problem once, and the result was pecked eggs.

4. We are just coming out of a bad winter - were the birds bored? I've also seen this result in pecking.

5. Do the eggs seem to have good shell quality? We see chickens eating eggs, but usually, they're weak shelled eggs from older birds, and I don't see it as resulting in intentional pecking in many situations. (Some people say that if a bird gets a taste, they'll be hooked, but I have not observed that happening in my flocks - it became habit *only* when there was some other stressor.)

6. Some breeds of chickens cope with certain conditions better than others. If you're using a breed that didn't give you trouble in the past, this may just be an aberration, but if it's a different breed, they may not be as suited to your system or your climate. (We once got some Rhode Isl. Reds and they need much more foraging space and action than industrial birds do, as an example.) That said, even within a breed, we've had some bad genetics appear in birds that we bought as POL, from the very same source, so sometimes there's no known reason for problems.

7. Thomas Rubino's approach has certainly been used on my homestead.  If there are a lot of birds and time is limited, I have just taken the breasts, leg/thighs, and neck, rather than trying to pluck or skin the birds. The necks are easy to take, and make excellent bone broth. This reduces the composting problem, so win-win. When I do have to compost a bunch of birds, I make a bed of sawdust and biochar for the bottom and add some to the top to decrease the risk of smells. I know of some people who do a version of bokashi to discourage scavengers.

Good luck on your solutions.   In past years I had a bit of this aberrant behavior.  One way I fought it was increasing fresh greens....pulled weeds, handfuls of grass and dandelions....and fresh soil.  Perhaps it cured some boredom as they scratched and pecked more.  May the Great Egg Spirit help you on your quest sir

I agree with Thomas, fried chicken sounds great.

We have never found a way to stop with once they get the taste for eggs.

Jay Angler wrote:(Some people say that if a bird gets a taste, they'll be hooked, but I have not observed that happening in my flocks - it became habit *only* when there was some other stressor.)

I second this and maybe some other comments on needing to cull those particular birds with aberrant behavior and leave the rest if possible. It sounds like you are providing what they need.

Our kids will occasionally crack and egg when collecting it or drop one. The hens will go crazy eating the broken egg, and boiled eggs that don't peel well for that matter, but they do not eat the whole eggs even though they love the insides.

The fact that you have several doing this is unusual, to me anyway.

Thanks all for the input.  I'm going to pursue this in two ways.  I'm going to follow up on Matt McSpadden's solution of roll away nest boxes, partially because I like the idea of cleaner eggs and to help ward off future problems with egg eating, as well as culling the chickens I know are eating eggs.  I have a new "breed" that I want to work on anyway.  I have a blue copper maran rooster that mated with an easter egger hen.  One of my light brahmas made off with some eggs into my currently unused dog kennels and hatched a couple babies.  The hen that hatched is the most beautiful chicken.  She is black but shines a beautiful green color in any lighting, has really gorgeous black cheek feathers, and just a sprinkling of copper feathers on her neck.  She's a very friendly, sweet chicken.  I've decided to add a few of these to the flock, so as many as I end up culling, I'll fill back in with more of these.

Wow, I had no idea this was something that could happen!

Is this less likely to occur with a significantly smaller flock? Based on the replies so far, that's the impression I get. I ask because I'm considering getting chickens sometime in the coming years, but likely only two to four birds at a time.

Sorry for your troubles, Trace.

J Lovejoy wrote: Is this less likely to occur with a significantly smaller flock?

I know of a case where the family had only 2 chickens and this happened.

I suspect boredom may have instigated it, but with only that one example, it might have been just 1 factor of many.

Generally, the "standard" is that the chickens are groupies and benefit from being in a flock of 4-5 birdsminimum. Less than 3 is generally considered not good, although if they're more like hand-raised pets, it might work.

Jay Angler wrote:Generally, the "standard" is that the chickens are groupies and benefit from being in a flock of 4-5 birdsminimum.

That's great information, thank you. I'll aim for four chickens when the time comes.

Come to think of it, how tragic it would be to only get two birds and it turns out they don't like each other, lol.

Scott Leonard wrote:

Why?

My understanding is that debeaking and decombing is typically practiced in feeding operations where the animals will be stressed and overcrowded. I believe this happens because they are looked at as "production units".

I imagine most people here would want to find out what is causing the stress and remove that factor if possible or cull if not, rather than the debeaking or decombing measure. I know I would and this seems to be the spirit of OP.

Josh Hoffman wrote:

Scott Leonard wrote:

Why?

My understanding is that debeaking and decombing is typically practiced in feeding operations where the animals will be stressed and overcrowded. I believe this happens because they are looked at as "production units".

I imagine most people here would want to find out what is causing the stress and remove that factor if possible or cull if not, rather than the debeaking or decombing measure. I know I would and this seems to be the spirit of OP.

That echoes my thoughts exactly.  People smarter than I am say it is stressful, painful, and can cause long term discomfort, as well as just stopping a chicken from being able to perform "normal" chicken behaviors.  In addition, I dislike treating the symptom of the problem, and would rather try to find out what is causing it.  I've never had chickens with the kinds of problems debeaking is supposed to cure.  I don't believe my egg eating issue would be corrected by debeaking.  I think it probably came about by an egg occasionally being broken by being stepped on or what have you and the chickens just discovered they like the taste.  I didn't address it as quickly as I should have, and it became a habit that was picked up by more of them.  That's my thinking anyway.  Bottom line for me is, I think debeaking is cruel, and unnecessary for people that raise chickens in a happy, stress free environment with plenty of room, fresh air, good food, and clean water.

Nope...I grew up on a farm, gramp and then dad had 12000 layers, 6 flocks 2k per. I've scaled back and diversified into dairy and greenhouse as well, but will be at 400 layers this year. Debeaked ay 12 wks,  
done at night, under red lamps, electric debeakers, quietly, calmly, set to 1/4 the top and touch flatten the bottom, 2-21/2 hrs start to finish, about as traumatizing as trimming your finger nails. Scared fish don't bite and stressed birds don't lay, we always had and I have now over 90% lay production every flock

Scott Leonard wrote:Nope...I grew up on a farm, gramp and then dad had 12000 layers, 6 flocks 2k per. I've scaled back and diversified into dairy and greenhouse as well, but will be at 400 layers this year. Debeaked ay 12 wks,  
done at night, under red lamps, electric debeakers, quietly, calmly, set to 1/4 the top and touch flatten the bottom, 2-21/2 hrs start to finish, about as traumatizing as trimming your finger nails. Scared fish don't bite and stressed birds don't lay, we always had and I have now over 90% lay production every flock

What does this process help with or prevent? Ive seen flocks of over 1000... with intact beaks and no issues. Just wondering the need for it. All the reasons I have heard of for debeaking could be solved in other ways.

And not to overly obviate the point, I've never had an egg breakage  issue

Scott Leonard wrote:And not to overly obviate the point, I've never had an egg breakage  issue

If debeaking wasn't effective then chicken farmers wouldn't do it. What I am saying is that I think there are ways to achieve the same results, while leaving their beak in tact. They use their beak to test out new things and to pick up small things from the ground. They use their beak instead of hands. If someone had their fingers cut off one knuckle from the palm... they could still do things, but would be much more limited than someone with a full length finger. Debeaking a chicken hinders its ability to be a chicken and use its beak to explore.

Would you consider options that have the same result without needing to cut their beak?

Trace, let us know what you decide and how it goes. I'll bookmark this one in case I ever have issues. I like to hear about all the different ways to solve problems.

My chickens eat eggs when they are missing something in their diet.  It's usually about easter as the weather is better and they are foraging more.  But not enough selection yet for them to get a balanced diet.

More free choice oister shells and extra protine usually do the trick.  A bit of liver every day for a week and they no longer seem to need the eggs.

If it's just one chicken (it almost never is in my flock), it's usually being bullied and feels she can't get enough regular food, so she eats eggs.  Keep her separate but within sound of the others.  Boost her nutrition.   Once she's put on some weight, she can go back with the flock and the egg eating seems to stop.

As for the popular cures, I haven't found many that work with my flock.  Dark nesting boxes, make it easier to normalize egg eating.  Fake eggs, they can tell the difference and are usually hard enough to make new eggs break if she's standing while laying.

More frequent collection helps a lot while getting through this.  As does more interesting things to do.  With one of the modern egg laying breeds, bordem seems to be the only cause, so we hung cabbage and other treats from string.  Eventually we went back to heritage duel purpose as they tend to be more chill and develop fewer personality issues.

The other thing is weather. In the winter, half a dozen eggs a day for 50 chickens is pretty normal here. Put solar lighting in the hen house so thdy can get an extra 4 hours light in the morning for eating and drinking and egg production goes up as a side effects.   But mid winter can be so dark here, the animals can die of malnutrition if we aren't careful.  Not enough daylight to eat.  The first year I thought we had a flock of egg eaters, it turned out they just weren't laying as it's a natural part of the cycle.

But start with nutrition as this is almost always the fastest cure.

We cared for spent hens once. 18 month old layers from the local egg factory where they trim the beaks.  They were the worst egg eaters of the lot and used gravity to crack ay shells too tough for them.  But due to their genetics or life expirence, their shells weren't very tough.  The trimmed beak didn't have any influence on this, but it did mean they had to be more creative in their bullying.

The thing I diskliked most about these spent layers was their need for so much human help.  No oyster shells for them.  Oyster flour was needed.  No foraging with pellets for backup, no, they needed baby food, 22% (crazy high protine) crumble just to meet minimum standarss of nutrition. It was almost impossible to get them to gain weight until we discovered putting their treats through a food processor was needed, but then bordem because they eat treats too fast.  Bordem is the worst thing for breeding poor behaviour in a flock.

Eventually my friend came to collect his dinners and we swore never again to have trimmed beak chooks.  Chickens should be care free and able to forage for themselves and make ther own happiness.  This makes the best tasting eggs (2 year wait list and people coming from hours a way because they say our eggs taste best).  

Ps, the egg eating improved when we could adjust the diet to their needs.

Diet isn't always the solution, but I found it has the most chance of success with the least effort.

r ranson wrote:We cared for spent hens once. 18 month old layers from the local egg factory where they trim the beaks.  

Even spent hens may have different personalities, but I wouldn't want to care for a large group of them!

A friend of mine was given 5 of them she mixed in with the rest of her mixed-breed birds and once they settled in, they lived and laid several eggs per week for 5 more years.

I've met some Industrial birds who were just plain nasty, and others that had quite nice personalities. Trouble is, we generally can't tell that in advance...

Similarly, I've met Industrial birds whose beak trimming was done minimally, and ones who struggle to pick up an Earwig off the lid of our feed bucket. For some reason, Earwigs seem to like living in the garbage cans our feed buckets are stored in. If the bucket has lots on the lid, I will try to remove the lid carefully where there are some chickens to harvest the bugs. I think it's totally sad if the chicken's had such bad trimming, that it can't accomplish that task.

However, my friend raises Banties and their beaks seem to grow even as adult birds. She has to watch, particularly her roosters, as the upper beak can grow long enough that in fact she does have to cut it back a little bit or it gives the bird trouble feeding. I don't know if birds that got more time pecking in dirt would wear the beak down? Anyone know?

In my case, it's very easy to tell eggs are being eaten rather this being the winter slump.  I have two coops.  One of the coops has no egg eaters in it and I am getting between 6 and 8 eggs a day from the 10 hens in that one.  Many days I'm getting less eggs than that from my other coop that has about 35 hens in it.  The bedding in the nest boxes with the egg eaters has dried yolk in it, the wooden eggs have dried yolk stuck all over them, even some of the chickens have dried yolk stuck to their combs.  I think I have about 6 egg eaters.  I'll be dispatching those soon.  I'm curious how many eggs I'll have after that.  

Scott Leonard wrote:And not to overly obviate the point, I've never had an egg breakage  issue

Scott, I have had several flocks of commercial debeaked hens that ate their eggs.  Once they learn it they find a way to crack those eggs. I think it always starts when they are stressed, such as from over crowding, or a deficiency in their diet.

Salt is important. Probiotics can help, either from fermented feed or fed as a powdered additive.

When they really get in the habit they even manage to get some eggs from our roll-out nests.

The main line of defense for us is to avoid the stressors. Also, I highly encourage the idea of culling the offenders if they can be identified, and selecting for those that are not as apt to eat eggs.

The beauty of this country's system is you can pursue whatever "vision" you have to solve whatever problem you have or that you perceive you have, the original poster has a problem with egg breakage by birds, I don't have that problem, I've never had that problem in over 40 years, moreover generationally those that came before me didn't have that problem and did chickens and eggs for a living, very successfully I might add. The steps to attain that success to this day are the same, a simple recipe that if followed will produce repeatable results year over year. While simple in process the steps are nevertheless necessary, knit one, pearl two repeat. As someone that makes his living from agriculture along multiple avenues, chicken/eggs/ goat dairy/ greenhouse horticulture/field crops/grain production/produce there are enough avenues for improvement/extrapolation/experimentation without trying to fix something that's not broken.  In the end it's horses and water