Nemo Ignotus

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  1. J Starr 4425 Community Answer

    The stuff you pick up living in a rural area!

    We don't really know why chickens sometimes break and then eat at or taste their eggs;  we have ideas, but, so far, no chicken to human speech translator has been invented, and I think the idea "bird-brain"** may have evolved because chickens aren't always that bright.  However, the usual ideas are: 

    • lack of calcium- and the eggshells are calcium rich.  Eating the eggs is kind of curiosity run amuck while seeking calcium.
    • lack of protein-  eggs are rich in protein
    • boredom/curiosity
    • possibly stepping on it, cracking it, and then curious as to what that stuff is

    So, what to do?

    • make sure your chickens are getting enough calcium and protein; check with your feed store for quality feed and consider adding vegetable scraps and meal worms to their scratch
    • try adding a free feeder with crushed oyster shells somewhere easily available
    • take an egg, poke a hole in one end, and fill it with spicy mustard, then sneak it into the nest
    • collect eggs more frequently
    • place a golf ball, baseball or wooden egg in the nest
    • keep the coop and nesting boxes dim or dark


    You need to be vigilant and try it all.  It may be that you will need to use three or four ideas at once- but collecting eggs more frequently and replacing eggs with wooden eggs or very firm balls will likely be your best bet. 

    Good luck.

    **Might have been turkeys, of course-  domesticated, those are dumb birds.



    UTC 2020-09-10 10:39 PM 1 Comment

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