[Bigkev]

Hi, I have a flock of thirty hens of various breeds and ages along with two cocks. Everything in my world is rosy except that I am recently finding eggs with their sides pecked open and the contents gone!! Why should this have just started after several years of keeping chooks and how the hell do I find out which one(s) are responsible and persuade them that this practice is frowned upon?

[dizzylizzie]

Have you thought about roll away nest boxes?
I caught a magpie eating an egg in our coop once, maybe your girls are not to blame

[chickenlady]

I had a few incidents of egg eating this year! it turned out that Tilly was starting her moult and her shells had gone really thin and were breaking! she then gobbled up the entire egg! (shell and all)we upped her oyster shell and put poultry spice in the food and it stopped. But as Lizzie says it could be carrion getting in and eating them?

[Roll Roll]

I would go along with Chickenlady. Sounds like vermin/squirrels.

[Beano]

We found eggs with holes in them in the Summer. We also were blaming the chickens until one day we found three broken eggs out of the run.
Fortunately Buttercup went broody quickly after that which meant that the eggs were well guarded all day.
We put it down to three young Jays that were spending time in the garden. When they left the thieving stopped.
I still dont know how to stop it happening, apart from keeping the chickens in an enclosed run for a while or get an aggressive broody girl like Buttercup.

[Flowerpower136]

Our chucks will pounce on any broken soft shell eggs, but don't seem to have worked out that proper eggs contain the same thing.

More likely to be a slightly more intelligent being? 

Think I read on here about a trick with a mustard filled egg shell?

[sallylouise]

if one of my eggs gets a slight break or crack then the girls to tend to gobble them up very quickly as well, they must like them,  :happy:

[Bigkev]

Hi, sorry for not replying earlier....busy..busy...! Thanks for the ideas but fortunately I solved it myself. I isolated the last 2 hens that I had acquired and waited for the next day...two nice eggs in the isolation wing and 4 broken eggs in the main run. They were ok then. Next isolated one of the cocks overnight. Next morning no broken eggs. Kept him in isolation for best part of a week now and no more pecked eggs. Job done. Now to decide the fate of the errant cock!!!!!!!
Thanks guys and gals.