hens eating their eggs.

[goosander]

Have 5 hens in a good sized run and a shelter. Started eating the eggs a few weeks ago and thinking they would stop just kept taking eggs away as soon as I saw them. Seams to be mainly the white eggs.
Any advice welcome.
Thanks.
Bob.

[veggiechicken]

Are you certain its hens eating them, Bob?
I had trouble with magpies getting into the run this year. Rats are another possibility.

[Nicos]

Do you see yolk on their beaks?

You could blow an egg and inject mustard into it....

[roitelet]

If you can identify the culprit I am afraid there is only one answer............... Big hen house in the sky. You could try isolating the hen first before the final solution. Once they get into the habit of eating eggs it is almost impossible to break them of it.

[goosander]

Thanks for the replies.
There were 6 at first but after finding one pecking an egg it ended up making chicken stock.
Used to have bother with magpies and rats. Put a net over the top and drain pipes with rat poison in them stopped that.
On a different note. Egg numbers dropped one summer to my surprise. Let them out in the morning and watched a hen run into the rushes round the side of the run. She was sitting on over 30 eggs in a beautiful nest. She had made a round bowl with the rushes. Quite a work of art.
Bob

[Nicos]

Our rats have returned.
We were rat free in the chicken run for about 6 months.....Hopefully we've 'taken care' of them again

[FB.]

I haven't kept any animals for several years but I have kept and bred a large number of bird varieties in the past.
Egg-eating or chick-eating often starts when something (or someone) keeps worrying the birds.
Once the habit of egg-eating or chick-eating starts it's very difficult to persuade the offender to stop.
Even worse, once one bird starts doing it, others in the colony may start copying.
If you need chicks from the offender your only choice is to 'foster' them to a reliable mother - I often used to take some eggs or chicks from poor parents or from young parents, and give them to an old infertile mother who had proven themselves as a good parent in the past.