I was collecting the eggs and I saw evidence of a broken egg…some yoke but, no egg shell.   I was feeding the chickens and one chicken started clucking and I knew I had another egg but before I could get to the nest, a chicken  ran out with part of a shell and all the other chickens were following behind her trying to steal the egg shell.

I immediately grabbed by net and took that hen out of the yard but suspected another hen, too since she kept looking into the empty nests like she was looking for eggs to eat.  I took her out of the yard, too.

I suspected one other hen so I took a hard boiled egg out of the refrigerator and laid it in plain sight (on the ground near the nests) so I could keep an eye on the egg, too.  One chicken immediately started pecking at the egg so I scooped her up and took her out of the yard.  My culprit was found.

I then took the hen who was carrying the egg shell and put her back in to test her ability to ignore the egg.  She came near it and then looked into the nest (uh, oh) but settled in to lay an egg.  She gets to keep her freedom.

Then I tried the other hen I had taken out.  Unfortunately, Sadie saw the egg from across the chicken yard and ran to peck on it.  Freedom is lost to her, darn it.  I really like her.

I guess I should put them in a pot and cook them but I haven’t done it yet so why start now.  I will just keep them caged for awhile and see if they change their ways.  If not, I will build a special yard for them.

I may have made a mistake by feeding the chickens their egg shells but I crumbled them up really good and let them dry out so I wouldn’t think they could tell they were egg shells.  I guess I will go fill up their feeder and add some oyster shells just to make sure they aren’t missing something in their diet.