I have a mama hen that has been laying and hiding eggs to sit on once she has enough I assume...so s

I had a hen setting on over 30 eggs! By the time I found the nest, she hatched about half of them out. This was last fall before we had the coop built and my hens were hiding nests. I also had a hen decide that 2 was enough and she hatched both of them out. If I ever hatch more eggs, my hens will have their nests in the coop from now on so I can make sure they dont set on more than a dozen. I didnt think my rooster was as good as he is. 60 babies out of 5 hens last year!!! This year, I will be focusing on gathering eggs instead of babies unless I lose any of my young ones I decide to keep. I want to keep between 12 and 15 hens and 1 or 2 roosters.

Dumb question time...

1. How does a chicken get 30 eggs and then hatches them?????

2. Did she lay them all????

3. can she just lay eggs and then when ready just sit in them and they may hatch?????

4. when and how does a hen, collect eggs??? Does she move them from one box to another and how do they get the eggs over the 3 inch lip???

OK, the answers are all hidden in other threads but heck, I do have other stuff to do.
Any answers would really be nice. I have always wondered about the above...

thanks in advance...

Sometimes other hens will lay their eggs in a nest that already has eggs, so if you have 3 or 4 hens in a few days they could have a nice size cache of eggs...So not one hen laid 30 eggs, but a few hens probably laid the 30 eggs. And mamas can take up to 2 weeks to build up their nest before they actually start laying...so any eggs laid in the nest within 2 weeks will be sat on.

missnu01 said:

Sometimes other hens will lay their eggs in a nest that already has eggs, so if you have 3 or 4 hens in a few days they could have a nice size cache of eggs...So not one hen laid 30 eggs, but a few hens probably laid the 30 eggs. And mamas can take up to 2 weeks to build up their nest before they actually start laying...so any eggs laid in the nest within 2 weeks will be sat on.

Click to expand...

You beat me to it...lolol. I have 6 hens and Im sure they were all contributing to all of my nests of eggs. I only had one hen setting at a time and one batch hatched at a time so im sure everyone contributed...hehehehe

Well she is sitting on 5 eggs right now...2 it looks like 2 of her small eggs, and 3 of a leghorn hen's eggs...so we'll see if she actually sets on them or not...I don't know. She started laying eggs in the dog crate like I wanted her to, but then the other hens started doing it too, but I closed her in there tonight...so we'll see how it all goes. I feel like she'll set them if she feels like nothing is going to mess with her. This would be so much easier if she wasn't so terribly afraid of people. A few of her chicks we got when we got her are getting to be really friendly, but she hasn't come around at all. She was fully free ranged by a local woman. She just had a lot of small beautiful chickens that just wander and be chickens all over the place, so she doesn't really like me getting near her. She's just not used to people still. When I toss out treats she still jumps if I toss them near her...while all the other birds are right at me trying to see what I have. So it makes it really hard to much of anything with her. I really don't want her to wander off and set eggs...so I'm going to keep working with her on the fact that babies go in the coop. I know none of the other chickens will mess with the babies, because she is the head hen right now, and the big rooster doesn't let anyone get picked on. I know because I have been putting off culling a bird that really needed it for a couple of weeks, and even though she was obviously weakened none of the other chickens paid her any mind. they allowed her to eat and drink and what not. So, as long as they have that crate the momma will keep care of them in there. She did it with 7 already. She is a mean mama, she freezes with fear if I get too close to her, after I chase her all over...although it is a slow herding more than chasing...either way she is the hardest to get a hold of, and she protests the most when you do get her...Either way, we'll make it work even if I have to rig up some sort of feeder so I don't have to get near her at all. And then as soon as I have another bird that will set eggs I will probably decommission this mama, just because I want a friendly outgoing barnyard chicken. So I can't keep breeding what I don't want. I have to streamline the traits that I do want.

Thanks for the info folks. I never knew eggs would last 2 weeks and still be hatchable.. (is hatchable a word????). I don't have a incubator, so my brooders are the only way I get chicks. Ok, sometimes when they have them, TSC if I feel the need.... I normally just put the days output under a broody hen. Now I know if I can keep some eggs, esp the ones I want and wait then I am sure she is broodie then put them under her. I have learned alot here.

thanks everyone past and present who have posted here....