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.

 

[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!

 

[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.

 

[The Chickeneer]

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

 

[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?

 

[mstricer]

They don't have mice in Canada

just kidding

 

[suebee]

I would not use her again.

 

[seminolewind]

Let her sit on some golf balls.