Egg booted out of the nest

[Fowl Mouthed]

I have a hen that's been sitting on 11 or 13 eggs...not sure how many. on the 16ht of this month I separated her from the other hens cuz they all kept coming in and plunking more eggs in her nest to the point she couldn't cover them all. The first eggs had been laid around the 1st but I don't have them all marked for dates. Since the 16th she been left alone and not bothered. She has her own hotel room....a totally separate cage the size you could put a saint Bernard in with a nesting box. OK So today I went out to check on her and she had kicked an egg out. It was cracked all over but not open and it was empty. Then I see in the front "lip" of the nest the shiny egg remains. No tiny baby thankfully... just the raw egg. Did she know that the gig was up and that egg needed to go? It was marked as being laid on the 2nd of Mar. Can they tell that the egg is "overdue" or bad? She hatched some out last year but she didn't have this many eggs and there were a couple duds.

 

[MrsBachbach]

I have a hen that's been sitting on 11 or 13 eggs...not sure how many. on the 16ht of this month I separated her from the other hens cuz they all kept coming in and plunking more eggs in her nest to the point she couldn't cover them all. The first eggs had been laid around the 1st but I don't have them all marked for dates. Since the 16th she been left alone and not bothered. She has her own hotel room....a totally separate cage the size you could put a saint Bernard in with a nesting box. OK So today I went out to check on her and she had kicked an egg out. It was cracked all over but not open and it was empty. Then I see in the front "lip" of the nest the shiny egg remains. No tiny baby thankfully... just the raw egg. Did she know that the gig was up and that egg needed to go? It was marked as being laid on the 2nd of Mar. Can they tell that the egg is "overdue" or bad? She hatched some out last year but she didn't have this many eggs and there were a couple duds.

Surprisingly, yes. They do seem to know which are good, which are bad. Some hens get rid of them, some don't.

 

[Fowl Mouthed]

My next question would be then...since these eggs range from being laid on the 2nd to the 16th...How do I handle that? Some of them are several days between cuz I was pulling them out. Until they got away from me and I hadn't dated them so them I didn't want to pull of eggs that were days old so I just left them. So will she continue to sit on them until all are hatched? Do I leave the babies with her or pull them out until the last one hatches.

 

[aart]

She will probably leave the nest a few days after the first ones hatch, to show them where to eat and drink, and probably not go back to any unhatched eggs.
Notice I said probably, twice.......you never know what a live animal will do, so you'll just have to play it by ear and see what happens.
You could put them in an incubator or just toss them.
Do a search on 'staggered hatches' to read what others have done.

 

[MrsBachbach]

My next question would be then...since these eggs range from being laid on the 2nd to the 16th...How do I handle that? Some of them are several days between cuz I was pulling them out. Until they got away from me and I hadn't dated them so them I didn't want to pull of eggs that were days old so I just left them. So will she continue to sit on them until all are hatched? Do I leave the babies with her or pull them out until the last one hatches.

Yea, what aart said. Hens generally stay on nest 3 days after first start hatching before they take the babies out. No, leave the hatched babies with her. They are good for three days before they need food or water. I set up a chick feeder and waterer right next to the nest when I let a hen hatch so the babies and hen could get some food or water. I moved it slightly away by day three so, it wouldn't get knocked over.
As far as the other eggs, you can put in incubator as suggested, and cross your fingers hen will accept them when hatched. I would be a bit concerned about age difference though with other chicks. If you try to add chicks to her always do it at night, after the chick has dried off and put them under her wings.
One other thing you can do if you don't want to use an incubator is candle the eggs that are under her. I would let her sit about 5 days and then candle them. Take them out at night, or just leave a few under her while you candle the rest. If she has been sitting at least 5 days you can see veins and a dark spot in the egg. So, you can toss the ones that show no development and then separate the others into groups according to how much development they do show. You can have a group that is farther ahead in development, one just starting development, and some in between. Toss the ones that are in the less developed stage and hopefully, you have a batch of eggs under her that are within that three day range after that.

 

[chickens really]

Just my opinion and what works for me.....Wait and watch what she does..With such a staggered hatch she will set till its time to feed the others that have hatched.....Then remove all the duds and let her raise what she was able to hatch.........Mine is hatching 14 eggs all within 2 days apart....No way of knowing how many will actually hatch..?...So far she has a few.........Some hatched yesterday and still hatching today ....best wishes on your hatch...


Cheers!

 

[Fowl Mouthed]

Thanks for all the help everyone. My biggest mistake was the Staggering of the eggs. I didn't anticipate I'm doing that, but when everybody came in and kept laying eggs and there I just lost track. I guess we'll just see what happens. Thanks again