How to Stop Hens from Eating their Eggs

Recently we got 6 laying hens from an auction. We separated them, leaving 3 in a large enclosure for the purpose of producing eggs, and giving the other ones to a rooster for the purpose of raising chicks.

In the past we have never had any issues with the hens.  We either had them produce eggs, or raise chicks, no issues at all.

This year, something seemed wrong.  First of all it was ages before we got our first egg and it did seem that we were not getting as many eggs.  Odder still was that the hens with the rooster were not laying eggs at all.

Finally I found one egg in with the hens and the rooster.  Yeah!  I got excited, however after two days the egg disappeared.  I looked around to make sure no predators had gotten into the enclosure.  Then a few days later I found another egg, but it too disappeared after a couple of days.  By now I was suspecting they were eating the eggs.

When chickens egg their own eggs there is no evidence, they even eat the shell. 

A good hen, rooster, and their family!

I tried to combat this by offering them more oyster shell, and also by placing fake eggs in their nesting boxes.  It seemed to do the trick as a couple of days later I found an egg, but not long after that, it disappeared too, so I know they ate that one as well.

Another suggestion was to empty a couple of eggs and then fill them with Tabasco sauce or something spicy, but I have not done that.

The only other suggestions would be to remove the eggs sooner and put them in an incubator but we do not have one, or to take the chickens and make them into soup, which is not going to happen either.

At least we did get a few eating eggs from the other hens, as long as I check them early for eggs I typically find some, but I suspect they are also eating eggs if they are left too long as would be on the days we leave early for work and get home later.