Noooo!

[LadyA]

Went out to shut in the hens, brand new batch of hens, only here since Saturday, nice POL girls (actually, they are already in lay, obviously just started), and what do I find? One had obviously laid a late egg, from the perch, slightly soft shell, and it had broken. And yep, there they were, tucking in! Weren't best pleased to have me disturbing their feast either - they were really enjoying themselves! :evil:
I sure hope they aren't going to make a habit of it! I cleaned up what I could in the dark, and sprinkled mustard powder over what was left. Didn't seem to deter them. Popped them all back on the perch, but as I left, I could hear them all back down again. Sigh. I had one persistant egg eater with my last lot, and finally had to cull her. Don't fancy having to cull the whole batch, when I've just got them! Let's hope it was just that the egg broke, and they won't realise tomorrow what it actually was. 02

 

[NicolsT]

I had an egg eating problem for three years...well..ahem..not me actually...one of my girls, except that she taught all the others how to do it. Every year I hoped that over the winter they would have forgotten, but no.
Then last winter she died, and this spring, the others HAD all forgotten, we were getting so many eggs I was almost begging people to take them off my hands!
Hope that it was a one-off LadyA.

 

[NicolsT]

Ooh look at me!! I'm suddenly a grower...woo-hoo!!

 

[LadyA]

Hopefully, it was just an egg that broke last night, and they were cleaning it up! All eggs were ok today. Although one had been kicked out of the nest boxes, and there was a bit of investigating going on, when I went out! The nest boxes are too small - I might ask the people who originally built the house if there's any way they could make them bigger at this stage. Or I might give them nest boxes somewhere else. The previous hens always used the boxes on the other henhouse, which opened on the other side of the run. Much better nestboxes, large, cozy and dark. But that house faces the prevailing wind, and the rain got in to the main floor something awful.

 

[darkbrowneggs]

I had a few bad egg eaters over the years (only one was incurable)

Tricks I tried on them in order of severity

Obviously make sure they have oystershell grit so they can make strong shells
Boost calcium in diet - I used to offer ordinary fresh milk - egg eaters often go to this straight away
Blow an egg and fill it with washing up liquid (I used Ecover so no nasties for their insides) - I can guarantee that pepper, chilli, mustard eggs etc will not work. Birds don't have the same taste sensations that we do.

Egg eating is natural behaviour to clean the nest from broken eggs, and in fact after laying a hen will usually turn and give the egg an exploratory tap to test the shell. If it breaks she will eat it and any other hens about who can see it will join in

Had a cockerel who became an egg eater once, and when the egg layer sang he would rush back, call the rest of the flock and break the egg for them to eat. Did cure him quite easily though........... 01

 

[Margaid]

The mind boggles Sue!

With luck Lady A it will be just because the egg broke. When I put my replacement hen in the temporary house, I was fiddling about under the perch when she laid an egg - fortunately I caught it as being a Solway plastic house it would have smashed on the floor.

 

[bigyetiman]

Hopefully it was a one off LadyA. Ours will eat a broken egg, but luckily non have turned into egg eaters.
That taught him Sue is all I can say

 

[LadyA]

Touch wood, seems to have been just because the egg broke, having been laid from the perch. No eaten eggs since. They have a bowl of grit, and so far, haven't been out of the run, so are just having pellets. I'm not letting them out until they are trained to use the treadle feeder, which from experience, takes around two/three weeks before they are really comfortable with it.