egg eaters

i managed to line 3 milk crate nesting boxes today. one with hardware cloth, one w/ tarp, and one with nothing. after using the hardware cloth, i began to think that this stuff was too sharp and wouldn't be comfy for my chickens or their eggs, so i lined the next one with leftover tarp. that didn't seem to work very well either so the 3rd crate, i left unlined. i zip tied them low in the coop, but still off of the ground. when i tucked the ladies (and gents) in this, they were all on the roosting polls! i want to keep those chickens out of the boxes unless they are laying an egg. this will keep the eggs clean and decrease any chance of the eggs breaking.

i am worried about an egg breaking because i don't want any egg eaters. this would be a potentially devastating problem. i have 30 chickens and if they learn that there is food in those eggs, trouble. especially because i have them in a coop that's too small for them and can't seem to get to the coop to let them out any earlier than 9am, about 2 hours after sunrise. they might get hungry and bored and start eating eggs.

i leared about egg eaters back in boulder when i acquired 3 hens from a local farm. we had lost several hens to the neighborhood fox and i wanted more eggs! unfortunately one of the new hens, in order to show her dominance, started eating eggs. and then they all did! oh my gosh, was i mad! thank goodness, it only happened for 3 days and they all seemed to stop.in order to remedy the situation, i made a point to let them out of their coop as early as possible in the morning and to give them lots of good scraps. but in researching this problem, i came to find out that some chicken owners have butchered their whole flocks because of egg eating. yikes!