what to do about broody hen eating her fertilized eggs?

[brownie]

Hello, I have a broody hen that is eating her eggs! We were given eight fertilized eggs ( from another farm- diiferent hens, diiferent eggs) for our broody hen to sit on and hopefully these eggs will hatch! So far she has been sitting on them now for two weeks and things have been going well. Then the last couple of days things have changed. First we noticed that one egg went missing so we isolated the broody hen to see if it was another hen eating it. Well, this morning I went to the henhouse and noticed that it was indeed broody hen that had eaten it! Now why would this happen? She has food and water, but maybe she's not leaving the nest and is hungry? Is this normal? In the meantime another hen has decided she wants to sit on eggs as well, so can I switch the two hens? Is it okay to take broody hen away from the eggs? I don't want to lose any more eggs. What to do? I am new to all this, so any suggestions would be most helpful.

 

[VAChix]

I have a broody on eggs at the moment. She is what I like to call my "free range" broody. She gets in and out of the pen on her own and managed to lay a hidden stash of 16 eggs (all hers). She's been on them approx 10-11 days now (as she is "free range" setting I'm not sure of the exact day she started.) Yesterday I went to check on her and two of the eggs were pushed out of the nest and broken, the contents gone. This morning when I checked on her there was another empty egg and she had moved the remaining 13 to the other side of the abandoned dogloo where she took up residence (I candled about 3 and all were growing. Didn't want to upset her too much.) I normally separate and cage my broodies at the point of set to be able to protect and keep tabs on them through the process. Also, when I set broody hens I set them with eggs that were laid that day as to retain the highest chance of viability. So with my "free range" broody the 1st egg was laid 16 days prior to the 16th egg. Follow me? The viability of the older eggs is decreased. Since this girl is my free ranger I thought it would be kind of cool to see how a chicken would do it in the "wild". Which is to say I have provided her with water (it's 90+ degrees some days) but nothing else. She will get off the nest about every other day to join the flock, eat, dirt bathe, etc for about 1/2 an hour and then return to the nest. My theory is, that even though she does leave to stretch, hydrate and eat, eating eggs is a normal part of a natural set. Out of the 16 eggs she laid herself, the chances of all being fertile is very slim. I believe she eats those that are bad or non viable to sustain herself through the set. The egg provides much needed nutrients and allows her to stay on the nest if she feels the need to do so. And yes, I spend wayyyyy too much time studying my chickens. Just my two cents.

 

[sonew123]

Quote:
I had a hen do this only when she accidentally broke the eggs-then she ate them!

Thin shelled eggs?-not enough bedding for her to sit on? tons of reasons it happens I took them from her and incubated the rest Felt bad but she stopped being broody within days after I took the eggs so I don't think she would have finished her hatch anyway!

 

[The Chickeneer]

They eat any egg they break, for reasons only broodies know.

 

[mstricer]

They don't have mice in Canada

just kidding

 

[brownie]

Okay, so she may be accidently breaking the eggs, not breaking them on purpose to eat them? I thought that was strange. Still don't know if I should take her off the eggs and let the other hen take over? I don't know how this affects the pecking order.

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

Sometimes if the eggs are bad, they go rotten, then explode in the nest. The hen will clean up the egg and help keep the rest of the nest clean. Do you have an egg candler to check the remaining eggs to see if they are developing or rotten?

 

[mstricer]

Could also be rats or mice. I've been having that issue. I want to set up traps but afraid my girls will step on it.

 

[brownie]

It's definitely not rats or mice. Could be bad eggs I suppose; never thought of that. I don't have a candler. This is our first attempt at hatching eggs so my husband I are learning! Maybe I'll just leave the hen alone and not move her?

 

[suebee]

I would not use her again.