Dumb Question

[chad]

Been raising chickens for a number of years but don't really know the answer to this question: When a hen sits a clutch of eggs, are they apt to be all eggs she's laid, or eggs from other hens as well?

 

[FireTigeris]

Not dumb-

a hen will usually set her own nest, but whenever she gets up another ready to lay hen may sneak an egg in there, this causes a staggered hatch.

This is why we mark eggs to be kept in the nest.

Some hens (I have two of them) that were so broody that they never seem to lay but will set on anything or nothing at all.

 

[AZ_HenHouse]

We just had a banty hatch out 5 eggs that only 2 of them were hers. When all was said and done, we had to remove 4 eggs that were not even fertile that had been laid in the nest by others sometime in that 3 weeks.
When she hatched out her first clutch, they were eggs that we had bought since we did not have a rooster at the time. The eggs that she was setting on (traded them out with fertile eggs) were from all the girls in our coop.
Seems some broodys will set on anyones eggs.

 

[Freya]

My cochin stopped laying eggs and is laying on my other hens eggs. Feel bad for my other hen, she can't lay on her own eggs lol