Do all hens roll their eggs during incubation

chickenz101

Songster
8 Years
Jul 19, 2011
179
10
102
My pekin bantam is a week into hatching my duck egg and I was concerned she isn't rolling it and when I candled it today the veins were on one side of the egg? Thanks
 
Broody hens roll their eggs on average 52 times a day. The veining on the side is normal, don't worry. I recently incubated some duck eggs and when I candled it looked like that too. And I was startled too! After a few more days when you candle you will see the development spreading both ways round the egg, until it eventually fills the egg. It's fascinating to see.
 
I have a chicken that if she comes upon the nest box with an egg already in it she will sit down on it, and then get up and roll it, and then sit back down, or she'll roll it to the edge of the nest and then sit down and then roll it up under her, and back and forth and back and forth, and she might sit there toying with the egg for an hour or more, but then she'll lay her egg and off she goes...most chickens when faced with an egg want to roll it...roll it this way, rolll it that way...I have eggs in my incubator that I am turning, but all the veins look like they are more on one side than the other...here is the trick...see where the veins are when you candle...now turn the egg 180 degrees and the veins should show again in just a few moments...just to make sure everything is moving around in there like it should be.
 
Oh right ok thanks everyone!! The broody I had before I'd hear turn the eggs... But the veins didnt move when I turned the egg though, is it possible for hens not to roll eggs?
 
One thing I have learned after hatching eggs with broody hens is that a hen's instinct is 100 time better than all the learning & reading & playing around I can do with my incubators. Over 3 years of keeping records, my broody hens have had a 99.9% hatch rate & I have had about a 79%. I know it's normal for us to stress. Don't worry she knows what she is doing.
 
My game hens begin rolling process upon arriving to lay second egg. Everytime another egg is depositied the hen rolls the whole lot. Once incubation begins hen periodically rolls eggs during process. With my front porch hen / pullet I place a baby monitor almost in nest to ease-drop. Rolling can be heard every couple hours or so. I do not think it occurs at night.

A great deal of variation exists between hens with respect to frequency of egg rolling. My dominique hens do it much less while games do it most. My games give consistently highest hatch rate.

Behavior does have risk since it makes hen more obvious to predators that hunt by sight and / or sound.
 

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