A question for the ages

[blackberry1]

My bantam hid out in my barn and laid a clutch of 8 eggs, how do all the eggs hatch on the same day? She can only lay an egg every 24 hours, how does the first egg she laid know to wait for 8 days to begin incubating? She was on the nest the entire time because I thought I had lost her she was not with the other chickens in the flock. Is it Mother Nature at work?

 

[pdsavage]

She laid eggs every day till she had enough then sat on them then when she sits on them they start to develop.
Unless another hen layed eggs in the same nest...make sure more are not added everyday by marking the ones on there now and taking any new ones....

 

[blackberry1]

I know she was setting on the nest the first 8 days because she was missing from the flock. Also all the chicks are from her same markings and color.

 

[Redcatcher]

pdsavage is correct but I would like to add that a hen can appear to be incubating or setting the eggs when she actually is not. When she sets, she will fluff up her breast feathers so that the eggs come into direct contact with her breast. Otherwise she is just sitting on top of them. She will do this until she lays her last egg so that they all hatch at the same time.