do chickens push bad eggs out of nest?

[davimi]

i have a chicken that has been sitting on eggs for 2 weeks...there was an egg in the corner of the box today...could she have pushed it there?....do they know if the eggs are bad?

 

[BlackBart]

Yes they do and they will eat the unfertilized eggs.
If you put the pushed out eggs back under her, she will push them out again.
Some people call chickens stupid, I don't think so.

 

[tuesdays chicks]

i wonder if they smell different to a chicken

 

[ChooksChick]

I've had them sit on them until they explode and I've seen them push out good eggs- always candle a rejected egg. Also, you should do a sniff test every few days.

 

[oesdog]

I am not sure but I think my broody must have a smell issue. She was sat on eggs and must have 'forgot ' to push a bad one out. One day I opened the coop and got a really bad stink of gone off egg. There was my poor Bertha sat on her nest covered in exploded egg!!!!!!! I had to get a new nest box and lift her off, she was not happy and had an egg stuck to her bottom. I gently lifted the other eggs she had and rescued the one stuck to her bum! ( She watched squalking at me!) over to the other nest. then I washed her best I could and cleaned out the yucky nest. She jumped back on top of the other nest and didn;t leave it for days. - when she did she litterally exploded with poo because she wouldn;t leave the nest. - She has 4 great live chicks 6 weeks old now! - I wonder if anyone else has had a chicken who - well didn;t chuck the bad ones out of the nest???????

Poor girl had a bit of an explosive experience!

Oesdog -

 

[denasfarm]

I have had them push perfect chick bearing eggs out. I gave them back to her a few times and then gave up and gathered the outed eggs, candled and added them to the bator to see if they were deformed or bad. They were just perfect little red Silkies! She outed about 4 eggs and kept about 4 for herself. They all hatched hers and the ones I adopted.

 

[BlackBart]

Quote:

Poor girl, she must of stunk . Got to give her credit for her maternal instincts.

I have had ducks sit on rotten eggs until with the slightest touch they would explode.
So far my chickens have been 95% right on with their decisions. Some of the younger, first time broodies, get confused and abandon the nest. Thank God for the big Dorkings. They will adopt even a fir cone as their own egg.

 

[vegjet]

Quote:

Poor girl, she must of stunk . Got to give her credit for her maternal instincts.

I have had ducks sit on rotten eggs until with the slightest touch they would explode.
So far my chickens have been 95% right on with their decisions. Some of the younger, first time broodies, get confused and abandon the nest. Thank God for the big Dorkings. They will adopt even a fir cone as their own egg.

Ok I am sorry, but I had such a visual of this, I had to laugh..

 

[dieselgrl48]

Some hen's will other's will sit them till Dire end.My Cochin's and Frizzle's seemed the smartest rolling egg's out.I would candle them and they were not fertile.Depend's on the hen I guess.I had a silkie once with 2 rotten broken once.I don't like messing with broodie's much but have on occassion date a couple egg's and would pretty much have an idea within a time frame when most egg's should hatch.Give a couple egg's an extra week in hot weather and a non budging hen.Your in for a mess and it will get on the newbie chcick's and stink to high heaven.My silkie is sitting about 8 10 various egg's now and if the rest don't hatch within a couple of day's from the first most likely they wont and by then she will be wanting to move from nest with chicks showing them food/ water.

 

[AinaWGSD]

Quote:
It's very unlikely. A bird's sense of smell isn't very good, only about as good as a human's.