While egg eating is not an incredibly common problem in backyard flocks, it can occasionally become an issue. Egg eating can lead to messy nesting boxes and less eggs for you! It can be annoying to have hens who have taken to the habit of breaking eggs to eat them. Learning how to prevent chickens from eating their eggs is the first step in avoiding egg eating issues with your entire backyard flock.
Raising chickens for eggs is a fun and rewarding experience for many backyard poultry keepers. Fresh eggs from your own hens are delicious and nutritious. However, some hens develop the frustrating habit of eating their own eggs. This can put a real dent in your egg harvest!
In this article we’ll explore the reasons chickens eat eggs and provide solutions to break this habit.
Why Do Chickens Eat Eggs?
There are several possible reasons chickens eat their own eggs:
Nutritional Deficiencies
Hens that lack sufficient protein, calcium or other nutrients in their diet may turn to eating eggs to satisfy these deficiencies. Eggs contain high levels of protein and calcium so chickens instinctively eat them to fill nutritional gaps.
Make sure your chickens have access to a complete layer feed formulated specifically for laying hens. Provide extra protein sources like mealworms. Offer free choice calcium supplements such as oyster shell. This will help prevent nutritional deficiencies that lead to egg eating.
Boredom
Chickens kept confined with little enrichment may turn to destructive behaviors like egg eating out of boredom. Provide toys, cabbages to peck at, and extra roosts and perches to entertain them. Allowing access to the outdoors helps too. Occupied, active chickens are less likely to eat eggs.
Stress
Stress from overcrowding, changes in environment or flock, discomfort, or illness can also trigger egg eating. Try to minimize stress by providing a comfortable environment and checking for signs of illness or injury. Reduce crowding and aggression by ensuring adequate space per bird both in coops and outdoor runs.
Broken Eggs
Once a hen gets a taste of egg, she is likely to break open more eggs to eat them. It only takes one broken egg from a clumsy or startled hen stepping on it to set off an egg eating frenzy. Frequent egg collection and providing soft, clean nest box bedding helps prevent broken eggs.
Broody Hens
A broody hen sitting for long periods in the nesting box can provoke fights with other hens trying to lay eggs. This leads to egg breakage and opportunities for eating eggs. Move broody hens to separate pens until they break broodiness.
Too Much Light
Bright light shining directly on nest boxes disturbs hens. They feel less secure and are more likely to shuffle around, potentially cracking eggs. Provide nest boxes in dim, secluded areas of the coop.
6 Ways to Stop Chickens From Eating Eggs
Here are some tips to discourage egg eating:
1. Increase Space
Overcrowding stresses chickens and leads to more egg breakage. Provide at least 10 square feet per hen inside the coop and 8-10 square feet per bird in outside runs. Have 1 nest box for every 4 hens. More space reduces competition.
2. Improve Nutrition
Switch to a higher protein, 17-19% layer feed. Provide supplemental calcium like oyster shell free choice. Offer treats like mealworms and yogurt for extra protein and nutrients. Proper nutrition prevents egg eating.
3. Add Enrichments
Boredom leads to bad behaviors like egg eating. Give chickens engaging toys to play with and peck at. Cabbages, leafy greens, and treat balls stuffed with scratch grains all make great boredom busters!
4. Use Fake Eggs
Place ceramic or wooden fake eggs in nest boxes. Hens will peck at these unsuccessfully and learn they can’t eat them. This deters egg eating. Just periodically replace fake eggs so hens don’t lose interest.
5. Improve Nest Boxes
Frequent egg collection and clean, soft nest box bedding prevents breakage that triggers eating. Consider roll-away nest box designs where eggs immediately roll out of the hen’s reach into a collection area after being laid.
6. Identify & Remove Offenders
If you spot a habitual egg eater, isolate her. Egg eating spreads quickly among hens. Removing the offender prevents them teaching this frustrating vice to the rest of the flock.
When to Cull an Egg Eating Hen
If these other methods don’t work, you may have to kill an egg eater who won’t stop. It is sometimes best for the rest of the flock to humanely kill a determined egg eater because they teach other hens to do the wrong thing. But try these tips first before resorting to culling.
Benefits of Discouraging Egg Eating
Breaking the egg eating habit has multiple benefits:
- Increases egg production
- Reduces risk of broken eggs and illness from consuming raw eggs
- Prevents the vice spreading through your flock
- Saves you money by not feeding hens that produce no eggs
- Gives you more eggs to eat and sell
The rewards are well worth the effort to curb egg eating using these techniques. Don’t despair – you can train your flock out of this nuisance behavior! Just remain vigilant and consistent. Your egg basket will soon be bountiful once again.
Roll-Away Nesting Boxes
Hens that eat their eggs as soon as they lay them might be able to break that bad habit with roll-away nesting boxes. Roll-away nesting boxes are designed so that as soon as a hen lays her egg, the egg rolls away down a slanted surface into a trough that the hen can’t access. You can collect the eggs out of the trough, but the hen can’t reach the egg from within the nesting box.
To prevent an egg eating habit from forming due to boredom, you will need to keep your flock entertained and stimulated! This is especially important during the winter months or during periods when your flock can’t get outside due to inclement weather. If your flock is used to free-ranging, then being cooped up may be especially hard for them. In the north, where winters are cold and snowy, flocks love to play with straw flakes to pass the time. The straw provides entertainment and insulation from the cold. Chicken toys, grazing boxes, and healthy snacks can all provide entertainment and prevent your flock from getting coop fever!.
High Quality Snacks
Treating your flock is fun and rewarding! Quality protein snacks are helpful in preventing egg eating habits. Sometimes hens who are craving more protein in their diet will eat their own eggs. Black soldier fly grubs make a great healthy snack for laying hens! Not only are they a sustainable and quality source of protein, but they also provide a source of digestible calcium! The extra protein and calcium supplied by the grubs make them a healthy snack for laying hens and all flock members.
Hens Eating Their Own Eggs? Here’s How To Stop Them
FAQ
How do I stop my chickens from eating their eggs?
To keep chickens from eating their eggs, make sure they have a balanced diet with enough protein and calcium, collect eggs often, give them enough nesting boxes, and think about using fake eggs or nests that roll away.
How to increase chicken calcium?
To increase calcium in a chicken’s diet, focus on providing a balanced layer feed, along with supplemental calcium sources like oyster shells or crushed eggshells.
Is it normal for chickens to eat their own eggs?
Chickens do sometimes eat their own eggs, but it’s not something they’re naturally wired to do. It often starts with an accident, like a broken egg, which leads to a learned behavior of eating eggs.
Why do chickens become egg eaters?
Chickens may eat their own eggs due to nutritional deficiencies, accidental breakage, or as a learned behavior. A common reason is that the hens don’t have enough calcium. Hens need calcium for strong eggshells and may eat eggs to get more. Accidental breakage, often from hard nest box bottoms, can lead to a chicken discovering the tasty contents and developing a taste for eggs.
Why do chickens eat their eggs?
Accidental Occurance: Sometimes egg-eating starts by accident – if an egg cracks or breaks, the hen may peck at it out of curiosity and then acquire the habit. Habit from Another Flock: Chickens eating their eggs can be a learned behavior passed from one hen to others in the flock. Once one hen starts, her flockmates may observe and copy her.
Do hens eat eggs?
Unfortunately, the answer is yes. Sometimes hens eat their eggs as a result of lack of protein, or it could just be caused by curious hens taking a peck or two at their eggs, then getting the taste for raw egg. How do you know you have an egg eater? 1. Egg yolk all over your chicken’s beak or feathers could mean they’ve been eating their eggs. 2.
Why do egg-eating hens eat the shell?
In egg-eating hens, the offending chicken pecks at an egg and then either eats the interior but not the shell or eats the entire egg. Egg-eating hens start this behavior for several reasons. Curiosity is one, especially in pullets and young hens. That oval thing that materializes seemingly out of nowhere? That bears investigating!
Do stressed hens eat their own eggs?
Stressed hens tend to eat their own eggs. Leave them lay in peace. Don’t interrupt them while laying their eggs. Through this article on chickens eating their own eggs we explained some of the possible reasons for its appearance and thus mention some preventative measures to stop this chickens’ habit.
What happens if a hen eats an egg?
If a shell cracks easily, the hen may investigate and then continue eating the entire egg. Calcium deficiency can lead to thin shells. Accidental Occurance: Sometimes egg-eating starts by accident – if an egg cracks or breaks, the hen may peck at it out of curiosity and then acquire the habit.
Why do hens eat ceramic eggs?
So ceramic eggs may be used both to preventing the start of egg eating and to try to stop it if it does start. Roll-out or roll-away nest boxes have a gently sloped bottom. A freshly laid egg rolls into a covered container, where hens can’t see, step on, or peck at it. This type of nest completely eliminates egg eating.