We have 13 chickens that are currently laying and another 10 that will be soon. Of those 13 we only get about 3-4 eggs a day because some asshat of a cluckler has gotten a taste for pecking the eggs in the past few months
We tried some ceramic eggs to help, but that hasn't done anything and we're pretty annoyed at this point since we thought we'd curb the action with those.
So, what have you done to curb this? Or how have you found out the culprit for your peckers? My next thought is to literally buy a game camera to put in the coop. At some point here we're having chicken stew.
Wait a couple of weeks. That's the only true solution. It's the time of year that egg shells thin down due to nutrition going more towards feather growth, so eggs get damaged in the nest and are promptly cleaned up.
It's a desirable thing, really, and an instinct that is built in to keep predators from scenting the nests.
Oh, you'll get all kinds of advice on adding calcium, protein or whatever to the diet, but that's not going to change the outcome. A couple of times a year~when chickens are coming into lay and then going out of lay~shells thin down, eggs get eaten because they are cracked or broken altogether as hens get in and out of the nests....and threads like this one are born.
Folks will tell you to kill the "egg eater" as she will never stop...this isn't true. ALL chickens are egg eaters and will opportunistically consume eggs that have broken in the nest, so you don't have AN egg eater, you have a whole flock of them.
Been keeping chickens for over 40 yrs now and never had a dedicated egg eater that will peck open normal eggs and consume them. But, twice a year, just like everyone else I'll collect eggs that have yolk on them, which means an egg was broken and consumed in that nest.
It's molting season....you'll get thin shells, weird shells, eggs without shells, etc. Eggs will be eaten and, finally, shells will firm up and like magic your egg eater will have disappeared.
The solution? Wait and be patient.
On another note: If you have old birds that need culling due to age induced weak shell glands or lack of steady laying, fall is the time to cull these birds~but spring is the time to mark them for culling. A lot of birds aren't laying in the fall due to molt, so it's the wrong time to evaluate their yearly production.
