[riverside_girl]

Hi

I am a new poster but have had my three hybrid girls for nine months since inheriting them from a kind neighbour. I think they are about two years old now. they have been laying continuously throughout the winter.
However yesterday a strange thing happened when I was closing them up for the night. My littlest hen (bottom of the pecking order) did not want to roost like the others, wandered back into the run, laid an egg and immediately turned around, pecked it and began to eat it. This has never happened before, they always lay in their nest boxes, usually early in the morning.
Any advice?

[carolbriar]

Hi and welcome to the forum.  There is a lot of useful information on this site which if you put in egg eating into the search at the top of the page it should come up with some useful tips.  Do you give your hens some oyster grit?  It could be that her shells are a little thin?  That's the only thing I can think of I'm afraid - hopefully someone will be able to offer more help/advice. 

[bantam novice]

Hello Riverside Girl and welcome to  the wacky world of henaholics!    We are a friendly forum and you'll find loads of useful advice.  I would agree with Carolbriar and suggest using the search.

As I understand it hens will try pecking at their eggs and if the shells are weak or soft they will eat them to prevent encouraging predators.  They don't usually eat eggs that have a hard shell.

 I'm sure you'll have some of the more expereinced members chipping in with advice.  in the meantime Good Luck. 

[riverside_girl]

Thanks for your encouragement.
I had searched for advice on egg eating but nothing seemed to fit. It was so out of character and as you all know we do know our hens.
She also has very few feathers and I have wormed. deloused and done everything I can think of, relying a lot on the advice on this forum.  She looks well, bright comb etc, but has had a bae chest, bottom and back of neck since she arrived and it has not improved. She is a black hybrid,  the other two are white and always stick together. Do I have hen racism going on!