does a hen...

[c.wilson]

does a hen know after a certain period of time if the egg that she has been sitting on is fertile or not. if the egg is not fertile then does she eat it or leave it alone.


i was wondering this because i have a bantam rooster and i have a big brown standard sized chicken egg from a RIR and i wanted to know what the hen would do to it if it was not fertile.

 

[Chirpy]

She won't know if it's fertile till it hatches. Hens (if they go broody) will sit on eggs even if there is no rooster with them.

If a hen goes broody she will sit on the eggs till they all hatch or one or more hatch and then no more hatch for a day or two. She will then take the live chicks and become mommy. If none of the eggs hatch she may sit for a long time waiting.

 

[kellim]

I have noticed my broody hen doing something odd though. Every few days she will make a little chirping noise to her eggs and certain ones she will push out of the nest. She doesn't ever pull those back in. I have candled a few of the ones she has done this with and they were dead in the shell from early on or never developed. Though she is still setting on somne guiena eggs that I just put under her that our guiena was too busy to set on! We will see if she is a good surrogate mommy when they hatch!