A while back I wrote a post about how to stop an egg eating chicken. At that point I had not had persistent egg eaters that went beyond my own measures. However, my summer was wrought with naughty hens eating most of their eggs. This is after increasing their calcium supplement and protein content in their food. I also introduced fake eggs which made a bit of difference but still there is a persistent egg eater. She is not eating the shell but the inside. I cannot tell who is doing it so I cannot remove her. They do not do it in front of me.

All is not lost however, I recently came across some additional suggestions from the University of Florida Agricultural Extension. They have a section on egg eating in backyard flocks (download pdf here). Two suggestions that I had never heard include:

Fill a dish with milk and let your hens drink it. Do this for several days and you’ll see a decreased problem with egg eating, according to the University of Florida Extension.

Trick your hens. The University of Florida suggests beating an egg into a creamy liquid, adding 2 tsps. of ground black pepper, and pouring it onto the floor of your chicken coop. The university reports that the hens will peck at it and find the taste disagreeable, thus curing them of the egg eating habit.