To your utter dismay and disappointment, you discovered that your laying hens are breaking, eating and drinking their eggs. After 21 weeks or more of anxiously waiting to pick your first farm fresh eggs from your laying hens.



This can be a very disappointing and painful experience. This problem of egg eating and breaking is not uncommon and it is very possible to prevent and stop it completely.



If your laying hens are eating, drinking and breaking their eggs, you need to discourage them and break this habit immediately. The longer you wait to correct this habit, the harder it will take to cure them of this terrible habit.



If your chickens have started pecking at each other. And are involved in eating and breaking their eggs, something must have prompted this behavior. And several very important measures need to be taken to curb this frustrating behavior:
Factors That May Be Responsible for your laying hens eating and breaking their eggs
Lack of, or inadequate nesting place and materials: Inadequate provision of nest may lead to your laying hens eating and breaking their eggs. Place the nesting box in a dark and quiet place within the pen. Chickens may begin to scramble and compete for where to lay eggs, especially at the early stage of laying their eggs. These may lead to egg breakage, eating and drinking.


Overcrowding may lead to your laying hens eating and breaking their eggs: Lack of adequate space in the coop might lead to stress and stress might aggravate egg breaking and drinking.


Nutritional deficiency: For chickens to effectively lay eggs they need a certain amount of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals to lay more eggs. When their feed is deficient in protein, vitamin D, and calcium it may result in poor quality eggshells.


Inadequate calcium in the feed may result in a weak shell and when the shell is weak it can easily break. This may also lead to your laying hens eating and breaking their eggs.



Stress-related causes: Provide additional shade diagonally in the chicken coop to avoid directs sunlight entering the chicken coop when chicken is exposed to the direct rays of the sun especially in the afternoon.


It can be very stressful for the chicken and is capable of aggravating all the conditions that can lead to egg eating, egg breaking, etc. and beside egg-laying chicken prefer to lay their eggs in a dark safe environment.

Hard, solid floors: Floor raised layers are more prone to egg eating. Provide good litter material for your birds, in case of floor eggs, the eggs will not easily break. Provide soft material in their nesting place such as soft dry grass, softwood shavings to serve as cushion for eggs. To avoid your laying hens eating and breaking their eggs
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source:https://bnethub.com/why-your-laying-hens-eating-breaking-eggs/