Do hens know?

[Beekissed]

I've never had a broody kick an egg out either. I have had good broodies eat eggs from her clutch...I'm assuming those were not progressing or had stopped progressing at some point. I've also had broodies that left clears and even rotten eggs until the end and she vacated the nest. I much prefer the broodies that eat the duds.

 

[duluthralphie]

I have had broodies kick out eggs, but I have seen them sit on an egg until it explodes too..

I am wondering @blakeee if the way you described it, your hen is a young hen. The first time a hen/pullet becomes broody is a pain in the rear.

They will sit on the eggs, then forget they have eggs, then sit on the eggs, go off for a day, then sit again. I had one that would sit about 2 hours and get bored then run around the yard all puffed up like she was a mother hen. Chickens just do strange things.

 

[JS69135]

I think this has been discussed before:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/302914/does-a-hen-know-when-an-egg-is-dead

 

[blakeee]

I have 3 or 4 hens hatch every year and have never had a hen reject a bad egg and kick it out of a nest, and I’ve had bad eggs. Others on here say they’ve seen it. You are dealing with living animals so I will not say it cannot happen just because I haven’t seen it. I do wonder if occasionally it’s an egg accidentally getting scratched out, whether it’s bad or not. To argue with myself, some people say they’ve put the egg back in and the same egg winds up back upon the coop floor.

I always mark and start all my eggs at the same time so they will hatch about the same time. After internal pip, after they have started breathing the air in the air cell, they do start talking to Mama. That lets the hen know one is still on the way. I’ve had hens take their chicks off the nest within 24 hours of the first one hatching, I’ve had broodies wait three days to bring them off. I always check the unhatched eggs and have not found any still alive after she left. That’s one of the reasons I let Mama decide when she wants to abandon the nest, she knows when the hatch is over. When I use an incubator I often get a response just from tapping on the top when one has internal pipped.

I don’t know how long your hen was off the nest or how cold it was while she was off. I don’t know how long those eggs have been incubated, the more developed they are the more internal heat the living chick inside generates. There are a lot of variables here. But I’ve had a broody hen go back to the wrong nest, I assume another hen was laying an egg in her nest when she returned from her daily sabbatical and she got confused. Anyway, those eggs were ice cold and were right around two weeks into incubation. I put her back on her eggs and about a week later she hatched 11 out of 11 eggs.

I’d trust your candling a lot more than the broody hen to tell if the eggs are still alive. But don’t do anything dramatic until you are sure. I suggest you candle at least twice a few days apart to see if you see any development.

Good luck!

Thank you!

 

[blakeee]

I have had broodies kick out eggs, but I have seen them sit on an egg until it explodes too..

I am wondering @blakeee
 if the way you described it, your hen is a young hen.  The first time a hen/pullet becomes broody is a pain in the rear.

They will sit on the eggs, then forget they have eggs, then sit on the eggs, go off for a day, then sit again.  I had one that would sit about 2 hours and get bored then run around the yard all puffed up like she was a mother hen.  Chickens just do strange things.

I'm not quite sure how old the hen is as we got them from an elderly man who couldn't look after them anymore. But I do assume it is her first clutch. It was only the one time where she stopped laying on the eggs because she cracked two and ants got all over them. I then pulled the ants off when I came home and she started laying on them again. She hasn't moved ever since.

 

[blakeee]

She has since kicked one egg out and I think she ate it.

 

[duluthralphie]

She has since kicked one egg out and I think she ate it.

A hen that eats an egg is a whole new can of worms and not a good can either.

 

[blakeee]

A hen that eats an egg is a whole new can of worms  and not a good can either.

Well I don't know if she did but it has disappeared and there's no where it can really go.

 

[blakeee]

Day 21 and I'm waiting for them to hatch. Only 5 left after three disappeared. She's a great little mummy and I can tell she's super excited. Thank you all for your advice!