If your chickens eat their eggs, what does it mean? How can you stop it? The longer they continue this behavior, the more difficult it becomes to break them. If you’re wondering why your chickens are eating their own eggs, there are a few things that can contribute to this behavior. Let’s take a look at how you can prevent egg-eating in your flock.
Why Do Chickens Eat Their Eggs?
One of the main reasons chickens begin to eat their eggs is because of eggs breaking in the nest. By preventing egg breakage, you can decrease the possibility and maybe even eliminate the hens developing a taste for their eggs.
How to prevent eggs from breaking
1.You should first consider the size of their nests. Your hens need nests that are 1foot x1 foot. Provide one nest for every four to five hens and never fewer than six nesting boxes.
To create the best conditions for your chickens, it’s important to maintain a clean and dry coop and nesting boxes. It is recommended to keep at least 2 inches of suitable nesting material such as shavings or straw in each nest. This will provide a comfortable space for your hens to lay their eggs.
2. If you have a hen that gets broody, you should relocate her to your breeding yards. If you don’t have breeding yards, create a space to isolate her so she can hatch eggs or you can break her broodiness. Leaving her in the coop creates stress on other hens trying to lay and eggs may get broken in scuffles or agitated states.
In case you don’t know what a broody hen is, it’s a hen that has decided to sit on eggs to incubate and hatch them.
3. It’s essential to provide them with feed specific for laying hens. A good quality feed with 16-18% protein is ideal. You can feed your chickens without buying chicken feed and supplement them by growing mealworms for them.
To ensure strong and healthy eggshells, offer your hens a calcium supplement. Typically, oyster shells are used as a calcium supplement but we use their egg shells. I wash the shells as I use the eggs, let them air dry, and store them in a stainless steel bucket.
When the bucket is full, I crush them and put them out near the coop for them to have free choice calcium. If you choose to use eggshells for calcium, it’s best to crush them into very tiny pieces so the chickens do not associate them with their own eggs.
4. Some chicken keepers suggest that in order to minimize the risk of breakages and maintain the quality of your eggs, you should collect them early in the day. By doing so, you leave less time for potential accidents or mishaps that could cause damage.
If you have chickens who eat their own eggs, this is a good idea. I would just suggest that you may have to collect them several times throughout the day to avoid all risk. We collect our eggs in the evening, but that’s what works for us.
Other Factors for Why Chickens Eat Their Eggs
Aside from egg breakage, there are a few other factors that can contribute to hens eating their own eggs:
- Overcrowding Issues
The minimum space each chicken needs in the coop and yard is 4 square feet per bird for a confined flock. If you can free range, the space allotment of course is not an issue.
- Lack of Water
If your hens don’t have access to clean drinking water, they may break their eggs in an effort to get moisture. Ensuring clean, fresh water is always available may help reduce the risk of egg eating.
- Hunger
One reason chickens eat their own eggs is because they don’t have enough food. To prevent this, it’s important for confined flocks to have a “free feeding” policy where the hens always have access to food.
During the laying season, a good quality feed with 16-18% protein should be enough. However, if the hens are molting, they need a higher protein content in their diet. There are several things you can do to help your molting chickens.
- Unbalanced Diet
If a hen’s diet is imbalanced, she may try to correct it by eating her own eggs. If there isn’t enough protein available, egg eating becomes a way for her to supplement her diet with protein. Free range birds will not usually have this problem.
- Boredom
Boredom is the number one enemy of confined hens. Many breeds do not do well in confined spaces. You should research the breeds you want before you add new birds to your flock.
If you have an established confined flock, you should research them to see which may not be tolerating confinement and provide more space for them, free-range them, or rehome them.
To keep them entertained and out of mischief, you can try different activities. You could try cabbage tetherballs, rolling treat dispensers, and chicken swings.
Hens are curious and smart, so they enjoy exploring new things. Keeping them busy is important because if they get bored, they may start eating their own eggs. You could add a bale of hay to the chicken yard and they will spend a large amount of time scratching through it.
- Too Much Light
Chickens like to lay eggs in privacy and not in direct light. If there is too much light, they may peck at their eggs. To prevent this, you can place your nests in the shadows of the coop and not in direct sunlight. Some people use curtains or privacy shields to create a dimmer environment for them to lay their eggs.
- Stress
Stressed hens are more likely to pick and pluck at their eggs. To avoid stressing them while they’re on the nest, try not to disturb them by rummaging around looking for eggs. Let them lay in peace.
- Inexperienced Hens
Young or inexperienced hens may lay abnormal eggs such as weak-shelled or even shelless eggs at first, and if those eggs crack, they may naturally sample the contents. If you find a broken egg, make sure to clean it up and remove any soiled bedding to prevent any bad habits from forming. It’s a common behavior for inexperienced hens.
- Curiosity
Sometimes, chickens are just curious creatures and they play with or peck at their eggs. This could be due to boredom or if they notice a crack or speck on the egg. They find a broken egg interesting and will definitely investigate it.
Identifying Which Chicken is Eating Eggs
If you want to find out which hens are eating eggs, you can check if there’s any yolk on their beak or head. You’ll have to check them as soon as you see the broken egg because it may get pecked off or washed off.
Some people recommend trimming a little bit of their upper beak (about 1/4 to 1/2 inch). This is supposed to make it harder for them to crack open an egg. If you chose to do this, you must be cautious! Only people who know what they’re doing should perform this procedure.
We don’t advise this or recommend it but everyone has to make the decision about what’s right for their flock.
How to Stop Chickens From Eating Their Eggs
Now that we understand some of the factors contributing to chickens eating their eggs, what steps can we take to prevent or resolve this issue? Fortunately, many of these causes can be addressed swiftly and effortlessly.
Overcrowding is likely the primary reason why chickens eat their eggs. To resolve this, we must either increase the space in the coop or reduce the number of chickens. It’s important to note that confined birds should have a minimum of 4 square feet per bird, ideally more.
We free-range our flocks and we recommend anyone who can free-range should. There are pros and cons to free-ranging just like everything else so you have to decide what works best for you and your flock.
It may take some trial and error to identify which hen(s) is the problem and which thing may be the source of the problem. Some of the things you can do to prevent them from eating their eggs have been mentioned above in “Why Do Chickens Eat Their Eggs?” and “Other Causes”.
- Avoid Bright Lighting
Make sure the area around the nesting boxes is not too bright. Hens are supposedly less likely to eat their eggs if the lighting is dim. Our nests are opposite the coop door, so the sun isn’t streaming in directly on them. Your chickens will benefit in many ways from a well set up coop.
- Don’t Disturb the Hens
Try not to disturb the hens while they are in the nests. Give them some privacy so they feel safe and comfortable. My hens don’t seem to mind if I’m in the coop when they’re on the nest, but I don’t bother them.
- Proper Space in the Yard, Coop, and Nests
If they feel crowded, they may become stressed and start eating their eggs. As we said above, provide at least one nest for every four birds. Your coop should always have at least six nests.
Too few nests can result in eggs getting trampled or cracked. Also, make sure there is sufficient nesting material for them. Each nest should have at least 2 inches of nesting material such as shavings or straw. Keep their nests dry and clean.
- Food and Water Concerns
We’ve already discussed nutritional issues about feeding chickens so we’ll recap here. It’s important to always have food and water available for your flock. Sometimes, birds who are higher up in the pecking order may guard the food and water. So it’s a good idea to have multiple stations when the flock is confined to allow more timid flock members to eat and drink safely.
Make sure the feed you give them is well-balanced. Vitamin and nutrient deficiencies can be the source of egg eating. There are many options when it comes to feeding your flocks.
Always have fresh food and water available for the hens if they are confined. If you free range like us, be sure they always have fresh water available. If chickens are well-fed, they may be less likely to eat their eggs.
- Extreme Measures
If none of these methods work and you have a hen that is determined to eat eggs, you can try some extreme measures.
- Roll-away nests can be helpful with egg eaters. These special nesting boxes allow the eggs to roll out of reach of the hens. This way, they can’t eat the eggs even if they try.
- We use ceramic eggs in a couple of our nests to encourage young hens to lay in the coop instead of outside where we have to play “find the nest”. Chickens can’t break open ceramic eggs, and after a few days of trying, they will give up on all the eggs in the nesting box.
- Another option is placing golf balls in the nests, the hens may get tired of pecking at them and eventually stop pecking at the real eggs.
- Chickens hate mustard, so filling an eggshell with mustard can deter them from eating the eggs. Blow the egg out and fill it with mustard before placing it in the nesting box.
- You could also use Cayenne pepper in a blown egg, we use this to deter chicken snakes as well.
- Isolation
If none of these measures work and the habit persists, your final option is to isolate the bird. You can follow the process outlined in our broody hen article.
You should isolate her where you can hear her cackle when she lays and gather the egg as quickly as possible before she pecks it. Every chicken is different as to the length of time it takes to break the habit. When you want to see if she still has the problem, leave her egg and see what she does.
Wrap Up
When chickens eat their eggs it’s known as a form of cannibalism and should be stopped as quickly as you find it. It may take some time and effort, but with the right strategies, you can break this habit.
Start with lighting, space, food, and water. These are the easiest fixes and can be eliminated or confirmed as the cause problem quickly.
Remember to provide your flock with everything they need to prevent and stop your chickens eating their eggs. This is rarely seen in free range flocks so if you have a confined flock, remember to keep them entertained to prevent boredom and egg eating.
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