Secret Nest

[ClydesdaleSocks]

So I just had a surprising discovery - one of my hens sitting on a secret nest of 14 (yes 14!!!) eggs. We thought our ladies were taking a break from laying due to the extreme heat we've been having. They started slowly laying again about a week ago. Apparently one of them never stopped (she's gone broody before and we had to break her of it). We do have 2 roosters but they're young and we didn't think they'd been actually breeding anything (when they jump on a hen, they just hump her back (or her head, lol), but never get close to actually rubbing vents together), but maybe they were successful? So I have several questions:

1. I took the eggs and put them in the fridge - can we still eat them? If I assume only one hen laying at 1 egg/day, that's 2 weeks the oldest egg has been outside, under a hen during the day, but alone at night (the hens get locked up in the coop at night). If they're fertile, then some of them have probably been developing? Even if they're not fertile, are they okay if they've been outside? I guess I could do the "floater" test.

2. Will me having robbed the nest (she was laying on them when I found them) cause her to stop laying there, or will she either (a) continue to lay there or (b) make a new secret nest elsewhere?

Please help! It's actually a funny situation but I have no idea. Here's a picture of Miss Betty caught in the act.

 

[boyswillbeboys]

when I found my hens' secret nest, they stopped laying out there, and went back to laying in the coop, I ate the eggs, but they were only 2-3 days old, (when I noticed a decrease in production) so I knew it hadn't been long. Make sure you crack those eggs into a bowl before putting them in anything, just to be sure.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

If your cockerels are old enough to breed (5 months) the eggs are probably fertile and the eggs are in various stages of development if the hen has been sitting on them. IMO the float test only tells you how old the egg is (or how large the air cell is), not if the egg is good or bad.
How long have they been in the fridge?
If a hen hasn't been incubating them, most are probably safe to eat. You need to open each egg in a bowl individually. If they don't smell or have chicks growing, eat them.

 

[FluffyandGinger]

You're lucky to have found the stash ! I'm convinced one if mine is laying elsewhere but I cannot find her secret nest. How did you stumble across this one? Suppose I'll be spending hours spying on my chooks tomorrow....

 

[boyswillbeboys]

Fluffy and Ginger, I heard the egg song coming from outside the coop, that's how I knew, then the dog flushed them out