[LittleRedHen]

For a while now, several of my hens have been getting hysterical of my Maran went in to lay an egg right after they had laid their's.  Today I discovered why.  I lifted the lid of the nest box, and there was the Maran, tucking into another hen's eggs!  Yolk all over her beak!  I was shocked, and she would not budge.  I cleaned the mess up with her standing right there, took the other egg that she hadn't gotten to yet, and stormed off.  She proceeded to sit down and try to lay one of her own, with no success.  Is there any hope to break her of this habit?  Why did she do this?  She's been trying lately to be top hen too.

[uktitan]

They can do it for various reasons, it can be a pain to cure we've found at least, boredom, something lacking in their diet and other reasons..

When one of our chickens started to eat Eggs, back when we first started we tried everything, and Eventually gave her away to a friend.

last time I talked to him, he got annoyed with that Hen and it ended up in the Pot 

I Hope someone with more Knowledge can shed more light and tips that will Help, I too would like to know how to cure this (in case one of our new chickens Decides its a fun thing to do)

[darkbrowneggs]

Hens can begin egg eating for various reasons, some hens, particularly older laying hybrids will have deteriorating shell quality which is one of the reasons they are disposed of from laying flocks at around 18mths old.  Marans have extra thick shells, which is one of the reasons I prefer them as layers.

Basically once a hen has laid an egg it will inspect it with its beak, and should it break it will generally eat the egg

1 - Yours may be laying weak or soft shelled eggs which break easily- this can be just because they are going into a moult, moulting, or coming out of a moult.  Or they may be just beginning or just ending their egg laying careers.

2 - They may be short of calcium in their diet, this should not happen with propriety chicken feed as optimum is calcium added, but if you are feeding extra tipbits or corn this can unbalance the ration.  Having oystershell grit in a small pot for them to help themselves to can help, calcium needs vitamins for absorption so codliver oil can be beneficial

You can also try the following "cures"
-Collect all eggs as they are laid - listen for the cackles and get there first
-Put pot eggs in the nest - a sharp peck at a pot egg can put them off
-Put a pepper egg in the nest
-Buy a roll away nest box
-Put spectacles on the culprit or culprits
-Plan an interesting chicken based menu

All the best
Sue
Dark Brown Eggs

[joyfull]

here are some details of how to make a roll away nest box :-

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=16490.0

 

[LittleRedHen]

Thanks everyone for your advise.  I'll be Johnny on the Spot tomorrow to insure that I get the eggs first.  We were jut commenting on how this hen finally has sorted herself out and is such a joy to have around.  Oh well.

[Junie]

We have the same problem - We will be tweeking the nest box - my husband did see the girls chasing one of the chickens and pecking her back - not too hard though, as soon as the egg appeared, they were pecking at it.  Unfortunately he did not see which one it was though.
I am hoping a roll away nest box will help as I am fed up with eggs that ate dirty due to the broken egg in the box.