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5 days ago I was given 4 hens, two are huge and lay the largest hen eggs I have ever seen. Yesterday - I caught one of the large hens eating its own egg. Egg gone, 1/4 of the shell too. Never had this before. Any ideas?

I once read that the cure was to blow an egg [or is it suck it - don't know ask your grandmother  :)] Then to fill the egg with mustard [not quite sure how to do that either] & place it in the nest box for the chicken to eat - apparently it works every time! 

More realistically maybe remove the eggs quickly.  I have had holes pecked in them occasionally but never eaten.

I've certainly heard of it, but i don't know why they do it.

The egg shell is full of calcium so perhaps they have a shortage in the diet. Try feeding them with food high in calcium. It might work. It is quite common for chicken to eat eggs.

They get layers pellets, grit, corn, wheat, maize, bread & occassional greens

Mine have been doing it too but they are laying soft egg shells so I think they throw them out the nest and then eat them.

When i got 2 of my hens one was eating her own eggs,i tried the mustard trick,i blew the egg as already said then i filled it with the mustard using a syringe,she tried to eat it but as soon as she tasted the mustard thought better of it,she has never offered to try again.

That's amazing - was it really difficult to do?  I have read about it but never realised it could actually be done.

It was not really difficult to do at all,i drilled a 4-5mm hole in each end if the egg then rather than using mustard from a pot which i thought might be a bit thick i used powdered mustard mixed with water so that i could make it slightly thinner then just syringed it into one end of the egg.

Did you blow the egg before putting the mustard in?

Yes,it was blown first.

someone once told me that once a chicken starts doing this you should despatch it!  :o

HI - we had chickens for years, and the way we got round this was to give the chickens what they wanted, which is the calcium from the egg shells!

We had a Rayburn, but the oven on a very low heat will do just as well - lay egg shells on a tray and cook on very low until they are darker in colour and very brittle.  Then just crumble the shells up (so that the chickens don't associate the shells with the ones they lay!) and make sure that you add a little each day to the chickens feed.

That should hopefully do the trick.

I used to keep quite a lot of hens at one time and this problem occured now and then even tho' grit and other crushed shell was available.
Never heard of the mustard trick.....apparently it worked! Way to go?

Once they've done it they get to like the taste. Simple pimple.

Ginger is my egg eater. I just have to pick the eggs up before she gets an idea for a tasty snack.

I remember discussing the mustard trick with Robert ages ago...except it was to do with thieving mutts.  You leave a tasty looking snack on the table for an unsuspecting pooch. The thief takes the bait and gets a mouthful of mustard. I saw a piccie in a dog training book of a Labrador who had just pinched a mustard filled sausie roll. The look on it's face was hilarious.

When we kept hens in the 70's... yes I'm that old... we used to give extra grit.. that solved the problem for us...
Like the Mustard idea... ;D
Would Chilli work :o

Chilli might work yes,you do not have to use mustard,the idea is to use anything they will not like the taste of.