Broody hen has removed ONE egg out of TEN. Thoughts?

[AmyLang]

Hello all! I am very new to the broody hen/natural incubation period. I had a game hen start to set on eggs about 12 days ago. Over a period of two days, she had 9 under her. (obviously not all from her). On day three, I added a 10th egg. On days 4 and 5, she switched nesting boxes and was sitting on air for a bit, and twice I moved the eggs underneath her. The second time, I put her in her own crate, in a separate area, with her own food and drink, and only one nesting box for her. She has been sitting on them consistently now for about 10 days. Today when I went out to check on her, she had literally taken one egg out and it was brought all the way to the door entrance somehow. It was nice and cold, so at some point, she decided she didn't want it. I did crack it open, and it was NOT fertilized (but was the first double yolker that I have seen personally from my hens). She is still sitting on the other 9.

So. My question is, and I think I know the answer to this... Would she have any way of knowing/realizing that the egg was not producing anything and kicked it out? Or would it be because I physically put this one under/beside her.

I have yet to try to candle the eggs, and it is possible that she is sitting on 9 UNfertilized eggs (yes, we do have a rooster, so it is a possibility...I'm not THAT new to this lol), and will be sitting for no reason soon. I'm just enjoying this natural process, and can't wait to find out. What are your thoughts on trying to candle to see, or just waiting to see what happens?

Thank you to everyone here who has posted so many wonderful things. I have been able to do searches for nearly everything/every question that I have had. I wasn't able to find anything about hens removing a selected egg, but that doesn't mean it isn't there...

Thanks!

 

[Ridgerunner]

There are some threads on the subject. Many people are absolutely convinced that a hen will kick out a bad egg. I’ve been hatching with broodies for years and never seen one do that. I’ve had plenty of dud eggs. I’m not going to say it can’t happen. I’ve just never seen it.

What I have seen when there is no broody around is an egg get scratched out of the nest when a hen is arranging the nesting material preparing to lay. When I raised the lip on the nest that quit happening.

I don’t know what happened in your case. I have no idea what your nest looks like or how likely it would be that it was accidently scratched there.

It really is interesting that it was a double yolk egg but it being a double yolk egg has nothing to do with whether it develops or not. It’s their lack of ability to hatch that causes the problems. So it being a double yolk or not may be a coincidence. It not developing may or may not be a coincidence. I really don’t know.

What I suggest when people see this is that they mark the egg then put it back under the hen. If she again rejects that same egg, there might be something to it. And sniff the egg before you put it back. If it has a whiff of rotten egg smell, get rid of it.

An egg can go a long while and cool off cold to the touch and still hatch. My last hatch a hen did what you were talking about. She went back to the wrong nest (I think another hen was laying an egg in her real nest). The eggs were stone cold to the touch when I put her back on the right nest. That hen hatched 11 out of 11 eggs.

You can candle those eggs if you want. There is no harm in candling them. I don’t candle eggs under a broody but I do the ones in an incubator. It is really interesting.

 

[AmyLang]

Thank you for that reply, Ridgerunner!. Good information to have. I will keep searching using different key words and see what else I can find.

 

[littlechicklet]

I am very new to the broody hens too. Last year was the first time for broodies at our house. The only thing I can add is the same thing happened to me. I too found where the hen had pushed an egg out of the nest box and I also placed it back under her. The next day it was out again. It was an EE egg so very hard, if not impossible for me, to candle. I just assumed she knew something I didn't so I discarded the egg. Good luck!

 

[AmyLang]

An update! I have at least ONE baby chick out there and alive. I'm not sure if there are any more or not, but I was concerned that nothing was happening, so I moved Momma just a little bit and saw a baby chick stick it's beak out. YAY. Very VERY excited for this!

 

[AmyLang]

Here is a pic of the baby chick. Only one hatched, the other eggs were all either UNfertilized, or due to all of the issues and time of year never developed. Not bad for just letting nature take it's course (with a little assistance from me time to time...)

 

[littlechicklet]

congrats on the baby! I know I was so excited I couldn't stand it when ours hatched last year. Moma hen just about "flogged" me to death for trying to sneak a peek.

 

[ChucktheChick]

Yayayayay!!!! Congrats! What are you gonna do with the other 8?

 

[AmyLang]

Yayayayay!!!! Congrats! What are you gonna do with the other 8?

The other 8 were not good. Momma hen removed 3 of them one by one, and the others were still sitting there on days 24/25...so I disposed of them. All were not good, no baby chicks. (see above post about unfertilized and such...)
I'm just happy that we had one that made it!

 

[ChucktheChick]

Oh sorry for that. I am glad one made it! What did you name her?