Help! Discovered hidden egg stash in coop

[2102Simm]

Hi all, I recently inherited my father in laws 6 hens and found them an awesome young Barred Holland rooster. So for the last few days I've noticed their egg production was down and one of the EE was acting weird not leaving the coop. Today I discovered roughly 20 eggs of different colors hidden under an old feed bag in what was the baby brooder portion of the coop. What do I do?

 

[sourland]

Is she incubating the eggs, and do you want to raise chicks ? If so all but about a dozen, make things so that other hens don't have access to the nest site, and let her do her thing. If you don't want chicks or she is not setting, hard boil them and feed them back to the chickens or to any dogs you may have.

 

[2102Simm]

I believe she is but not 100%. We're already into the process of raising chicks we bought from tractor supply about 4 weeks ago. I'd love to see the crosses that could happen from the eggs. We have have 3 Australorps, 2 EE I believe and a silver laced wyandotte.

 

[Folly's place]

Welcome! If these are fairly new eggs, great. if they could be very old, pitch them. You can candle them for signs of development, or do the float test and throw away the obvious floaters, or boil every one and feed them to the critters, as suggested.
I throw 'found' eggs away, unless I'm sure they are new, or if a hen is actively setting on them.
No hen can manage 20+ eggs at once!
Mary

 

[2102Simm]

So went out this morning and Rapunzel (our EE) was with the eggs along with No tail (our Australorp). No tail had clearly just laid an egg so I aquired it while Rapunzel sat and growled/ ticked at me. I took 14 eggs from Rapunzel and left the 7 that were the warmest with her. Now I guess it will be a waiting game to see if she'll stay on them till they hatch.

 

[PirateGirl]

So went out this morning and Rapunzel (our EE) was with the eggs along with No tail (our Australorp). No tail had clearly just laid an egg so I aquired it while Rapunzel sat and growled/ ticked at me. I took 14 eggs from Rapunzel and left the 7 that were the warmest with her. Now I guess it will be a waiting game to see if she'll stay on them till they hatch.

Since it's hard to say how long these eggs have been there and how long she's been setting, I'd candle them all in about a week and get rid of any bad ones. Also it sounds like others are sneaking eggs into her nest, so mark the ones you want her to hatch that are there now and each day remove any that have been newly deposited into her clutch.

 

[2102Simm]

Unfortunate news this morning. Sometime during the night Rapunzel passed away. I found her this morning when I went to let the flock out to free range. So at this time looks like I don't have to worry about hatching any lil ones

 

[Cryss]

Oh no, I'm so sorry!

 

[Folly's place]

So sorry!
Mary