Broody removed certain eggs from the nest and broke them....why?

[Beekissed]

I have an 8 mo. old White Rock who is broody for the first time. She has been broody for about a week in the coop and had a group of maybe 8 eggs(not all hers) under her. We slowly slipped in the eggs we wanted to hatch under her and eliminated the eggs we didn't. We finally moved her on the 5th day to a broody pen/nest of her own and slipped a couple more eggs of the breed we wanted under her.

I went out on the second day of being in the brood pen and found two eggs she had removed from the nest and broken open. One was partially eaten and the other merely busted open.

I couldn't tell if these were the ones I had introduced because all the eggs are similar in color, size and shape. She had 11 eggs under her before this incident.

Did she remove these eggs because they were "new" or they lacked a certain smell, characteristic, etc? Does anyone know why they remove eggs or has anyone else had this experience? Did she have too many, or did she want only her own eggs at this point? I would like to replace them before its too late for them to catch up to the other eggs, but if she will discard them again, I won't waste the eggs.

Anyone?

 

[poultrykeeper08]

Hens usually push out and get rid of eggs that they know wont hatch right

 

[newnanchic]

Mother's know best !!! They were probably not good .

 

[bluey]

interesting...how do they know that early? Is it smell?

 

[Lollipop]

Don`t know how they can tell, but old timers swear to it. What you need to know is that you must set all the eggs at the same time. Eggs that are added later probably won`t hatch as the hen usually leaves the nest with her new chicks 2 days after the first ones hatch. Chicks hatched the second day sometimes are too weak to keep up and eggs left in the nest after the second day will be abandoned. Eggs started late will be late.

 

[dave_Cash69]

Lollipop pretty much summed it up in a nutshell.

 

[Beekissed]

Thanks, Y'all! I knew you guys would know!!!