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broody hen pushing a few eggs out from under her

Discussion in 'Incubating & Hatching Eggs' started by Gonda, Apr 16, 2012.

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  1. Apr 16, 2012 #1
    Gonda

    Gonda Chillin' With My Peeps

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    I have a Wynadotte broody hen sitting on 10 eggs since April 6th. On the weekend, I noticed that she wasn't sitting on one of the eggs, a very dark brown egg from a Copper Marans. There are two of those dark eggs under her. I keep putting it under her, but frequently she had it out from under her again, and a few times, it was rather cool. The odd time it was both brown eggs that were out from under her, never the other lighter colour eggs. Today again, one of the brown ones was out, and quite cold. Is she trying to tell us something? Do they know if there is something wrong with an egg? I candled it on the 14th and saw something inside, but nothing moved. I'm not sure if it was too early to see movement. I don't have too much hope for these two dark brown eggs. Should I persist, or candle again? If so, by what stage should I expect to see movement if there are live chicks inside?
     
    Last edited: Apr 16, 2012
  3. Apr 16, 2012 #2
    Kadjain

    Kadjain Chillin' With My Peeps

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    Most likely she does know that there is something wrong with that or those eggs. Whenever one of my broodies pushes and egg out it either had no development or the embryo had died.
     
  5. Apr 16, 2012 #3
    FireTigeris

    FireTigeris Tyger! Tyger! burning bright

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    I'd candle again, and have a back up incubator any time a egg -needs- to hatch.
     
  7. Apr 16, 2012 #4
    Mommy 2 Wee Ones

    Mommy 2 Wee Ones Chillin' With My Peeps

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    My BO had 6 eggs under her, and she pushed two of her eggs out, just over a week ago, both eggs were fertile. Today I went out to check on her & got a big surprise, a chick was poking its head out from under Mama. So now I wait to see what the other three eggs will do.
    My other BO Mama, has 14 eggs under her, they are due on the 22nd. I do not expect them all to hatch, because hubby saw 9 under her a week ago when she came off the nest to eat. Am kind of hoping another will go broody by the time the 2nd eggs are due to hatch, and I can put the extra ones under that broody hen and see what happens.
     
  9. Apr 16, 2012 #5
    Lacrystol

    Lacrystol Hatching Helper

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    Diamond, Ohio
    It could be a couple of things, one she has to many eggs under her and perhaps that one is a lot bigger then the rest and it just so happens to be the one egg she kicks out.. Or second thing it could be a rotten egg, take the egg and smell it if it smells different then the rest, you may want to chuck it, because it could explode under her then all the other eggs could/will go bad..
     
  11. Apr 16, 2012 #6
    msmeower

    msmeower Chillin' With My Peeps

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    Flat Creek, TN
    My broody hens push out their infertile eggs...and sometimes a good one. I would love to know how they know. Do they feel the movement or heartbeat of the embryo? Nature is just so amazing.....
     
  13. Apr 17, 2012 #7
    Lacrystol

    Lacrystol Hatching Helper

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    Good question, if I was to guess I would say perhaps they know because after sitting on the egg for so long, the temp doesn't change and they can feel the difference between them.. Perhaps the egg doesn't get warm enough and mother nature kicks in that tells them, ok this one is too cold it's gotta go... Other then that I wouldn't have a clue how they would know. I could see if it was a bad egg because they do move the eggs around and tuck there heads underneath them to readjust perhaps they can smell the good from the bad just like us if we were to smell a bad egg. hummm now you got me thinking about this.......but it's strange how they would kick out the good egg to but perhaps that's just a mistake on there part. Maybe They try to kick the bad egg out and accidently kicked out the good egg while trying to get to it... Hummmm I could come up with so many theories for that question. I think tomorrow I will just ask all my girls that question... I know I will get the same answere and that will be cluck cluck cluck cluuuuuuck.... Hahahaha
     
  15. Apr 17, 2012 #8
    Gonda

    Gonda Chillin' With My Peeps

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    The mystery continues. Today again the one brown egg was out from under her and cold, and the other brown one was partially out but still warm. I candled both and did see a shape in both, and thought I might be seeing some movement, but hard to say. The shells are so dark it's hard to see what's going on. When I move the eggs around, I see movement, but is that just the contents swirling around, or the chick moving? The one that was cold today and yesterday - both days I thought I saw movement when I was holding the egg still. A heartbeat? I forgot to sniff them. I gave them back to the mom. She does sit on them all day, but seems to push them out around 5:00 or so. I'll keep watching and who knows!
     
  17. Apr 17, 2012 #9
    FireTigeris

    FireTigeris Tyger! Tyger! burning bright

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    Jacksonville, FL - Arligton-
    Maybe she's just raciest...

    j/k

    good luck.
     
  19. Apr 17, 2012 #10
    Lacrystol

    Lacrystol Hatching Helper

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    Diamond, Ohio
    Have you tried to smell the egg? If it's bad you will know!!! I asked all my girls and just as I thought they all CLUCKED at me... Couldn't get a straight answer out of them, but I like the racist comment.. LOL... perhaps maybe she is??
     
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