Broody hen breaking eggs

[Crushablecurls]

I have a broody hen who is a right miserable lady. I have her completely separated from the flock so there are definitely no squabbles happening.
I gave her a dozen fertilized eggs, one was a duck egg (oops) so I removed that on day 2.
Then a few days later I found egg shells in her area.
And a few days later (today) I found another busted egg. They're a week old today.
Both times the shells were at the opposite end of the area as her nest so she is removing them.
Any idea why she would do this? I tried Google and didn't really find any answers...

 

[fluffycrow]

A couple of things could have happened, which could also depend on her experience level. Is she a first timer?

You don’t get many guarantees when tending to live animals, but the vast majority of hens I’ve seen know more about the brooding process than we do.

They are great at detecting which eggs are fertile and/or which eggs have quit, removing them from the nest. Today’s egg is probably a result of that, especially if you’ve seen her being careful with leaving and getting back in the nest when she goes out to eat, drink, stretch, preen and dust bathe.

The same could have happened to the first egg, or it could have been an accidental break. Every female is different in this, but most will be able to handle a dozen eggs. I’ve noticed some of my beginners struggling with such numbers, so I prefer to give them half (or less) the first time round. If this girl is a beginner too, I’d consider her accidentally breaking it as a possibility as well.

Keep an eye on things, and see how this goes. Trying to “catch her in the act” would also help. That way you would know if it is accidental, or a deliberate removal of certain eggs from the clutch, for reasons obvious to her, but not us. Try to work with your hen as much as you can, instead of against her. She’s definitely got some good instincts, seeing as she removes all the egg remains from under her, keeping her nest clean

 

[LaFleche]

Egg breakage is often a result of critters like mice or snakes having access.

Make sure that they cannot get to the nest and the next time she leaves the nest exchange the nesting material completely to avoid bacterial build up and festering.

 

[Crushablecurls]

A couple of things could have happened, which could also depend on her experience level. Is she a first timer?

You don’t get many guarantees when tending to live animals, but the vast majority of hens I’ve seen know more about the brooding process than we do.

They are great at detecting which eggs are fertile and/or which eggs have quit, removing them from the nest. Today’s egg is probably a result of that, especially if you’ve seen her being careful with leaving and getting back in the nest when she goes out to eat, drink, stretch, preen and dust bathe.

The same could have happened to the first egg, or it could have been an accidental break. Every female is different in this, but most will be able to handle a dozen eggs. I’ve noticed some of my beginners struggling with such numbers, so I prefer to give them half (or less) the first time round. If this girl is a beginner too, I’d consider her accidentally breaking it as a possibility as well.

Keep an eye on things, and see how this goes. Trying to “catch her in the act” would also help. That way you would know if it is accidental, or a deliberate removal of certain eggs from the clutch, for reasons obvious to her, but not us. Try to work with your hen as much as you can, instead of against her. She’s definitely got some good instincts, seeing as she removes all the egg remains from under her, keeping her nest clean

She hatched out 3 last year but this is only her 2nd time. She had 5 originally but two weren't viable when I candled them.

I unfortunately have only caught her off the nest once since adding fertilized eggs and I'm hoping there isn't an opportunity to catch her in the act of egg removal haha. She tends to come off mid morning when I'm at work. Maybe I'll get a chance this weekend!

I'm just hoping she still has the other 9 eggs under her. She's so grumpy I haven't even checked. I'm just letting her do her thing.

Keeping her nest clean does seem like a good thing though and I hadn't even considered that! Thanks for your reply! I'll just continue to wait and watch and hope for the best.

 

[Ridgerunner]

To me this sounds like something is raiding her nest for eggs to eat. It is not a snake of a dog, they eat them whole. Do you have a photo of those eggshells? That might give a clue as to what it is. Possum eat the differently than skunks. Since it is only one egg each time it could be something small like a rat.

 

[fluffycrow]

She hatched out 3 last year but this is only her 2nd time. She had 5 originally but two weren't viable when I candled them.

I unfortunately have only caught her off the nest once since adding fertilized eggs and I'm hoping there isn't an opportunity to catch her in the act of egg removal haha. She tends to come off mid morning when I'm at work. Maybe I'll get a chance this weekend!

I'm just hoping she still has the other 9 eggs under her. She's so grumpy I haven't even checked. I'm just letting her do her thing.

Keeping her nest clean does seem like a good thing though and I hadn't even considered that! Thanks for your reply! I'll just continue to wait and watch and hope for the best.

Her having prior experience makes me think that it likely wasn’t accidental.

What LaFleche and Ridgerunner (who are way more experienced than I) seems quite probable as well. I don’t have any experience with predators getting into the nest, so I can’t help much there. My only experience is with mice, which the hens had no problem keeping away.

I’d imagine larger predators would cause the hen to react quite intensely, so my bet is on rats as well

 

[Ridgerunner]

To me this sounds like something is raiding her nest for eggs to eat. It is not a snake of a dog, they eat them whole. Do you have a photo of those eggshells? That might give a clue as to what it is. Possum eat the differently than skunks. Since it is only one egg each time it could be something small like a rat.

I'll make a correction. If a hen is fighting off a snake or other critter she may have accidentally broken an egg.

 

[SourRoses]

Last month we had 3 broodies going at once and the worst experience in years in terms of egg / chick survival.
Everyone had separate spaces protected with hardware cloth, so it wasn't predator related.
Most years we let a broody or two hatch a clutch, so we do have experience and the results are usually better. This is to say, I can empathize with your struggle. Usually broodies make the whole process easy, occasionally they make it very hard.
One was my most experienced, motherly and docile broody. Even she squashed one of her hatching chicks in the night. In total we lost 3 chicks out of the shell and one half in the shell. Was it contagious broody agitation? I don't know.
That same sweet broody is huge so she can cover a lot of chicks, and I knew from experience that I could, so I gave her an additional 13 chicks out of the incubator 2 days after her own hatched, in the daylight even. She called them to come under her. right away and has done well with all 16 since.

One thing I will say is that the space matters. Something that makes a good egg laying nest might not always be the best for incubation. I had to move one of the three when I watched her struggle with the nest container (a stackable type bin with a lowered front). So that might have contributed to her egg losses. I see you have a milk crate for yours, which makes for a fine nest but can be challenging for them to drop back into from the top without crushing an egg. I made up my mind from here on to set broodies up on flat surfaces with bedding, like in a dog crate or brooder. And that way you can have food and water at the same level and away from the nest, which helps when the chicks have hatched and mom wants to take them out for lunch.

 

[Crushablecurls]

Last month we had 3 broodies going at once and the worst experience in years in terms of egg / chick survival.
Everyone had separate spaces protected with hardware cloth, so it wasn't predator related.
Most years we let a broody or two hatch a clutch, so we do have experience and the results are usually better. This is to say, I can empathize with your struggle. Usually broodies make the whole process easy, occasionally they make it very hard.
One was my most experienced, motherly and docile broody. Even she squashed one of her hatching chicks in the night. In total we lost 3 chicks out of the shell and one half in the shell. Was it contagious broody agitation? I don't know.
That same sweet broody is huge so she can cover a lot of chicks, and I knew from experience that I could, so I gave her an additional 13 chicks out of the incubator 2 days after her own hatched, in the daylight even. She called them to come under her. right away and has done well with all 16 since.

One thing I will say is that the space matters. Something that makes a good egg laying nest might not always be the best for incubation. I had to move one of the three when I watched her struggle with the nest container (a stackable type bin with a lowered front). So that might have contributed to her egg losses. I see you have a milk crate for yours, which makes for a fine nest but can be challenging for them to drop back into from the top without crushing an egg. I made up my mind from here on to set broodies up on flat surfaces with bedding, like in a dog crate or brooder. And that way you can have food and water at the same level and away from the nest, which helps when the chicks have hatched and mom wants to take them out for lunch.

I wondered about the crate! Wish I'd moved her out of it so the eggs hadn't broke originally, but unfortunately the ones remaining were mostly infertile and two quit early on. One hatched and died.
It was a bad experience all around.

 

[Mrs. K]

Sometimes it just goes that way. "Don't count your chicks before they hatch," is legit. Says the lady, who should have chicks tomorrow or Wednesday... and you know I am hoping!