Hens Bury Eggs??

[JNB]

Can anyone give me any insight as to why some of my hens are burrying their eggs in their nest? They are 18 months old and have never done this before. I found a couple eggs on the ground about 2 weeks ago... but that only happened a couple times. Now when I go to collect everyday for the past 5 days they have completely covered them in the boxes ALL the boxes and ALL the eggs. I havent actually been able to see the hens doing this to see if its one hen ore several.

Im not really worried except that they have broken a couple eggs in their process of digging to the bottom of the nest box and recovering the eggs..

Any Insight ?? Thank You

 

[jak2002003]

maybe they are going broody. Then the hens will cover up the eggs to hid them from predators when they are off the nest eating and drinking.

 

[BobDBirdDog]

Just a thought!
Outside of Broody, or to include Broody.... and in theory of nature and natural instinct (and not to say that hens can calculate, read a calender, make plans, perform math, have common sense or other);

The hen could be prolonging the setting session until she has a worthy clutch of eggs. Consider the fact that most birds lay only 1 egg per day and lets say it takes 23-30 days incubation before hatching, should the hen lay 1 egg per day and start setting the on first egg, she would be setting for a total of the incubation time until the last egg laid, hatched! If the hen was so inclined to hatch every egg she could be setting for twice as long under that lame plan of attack.

If you consider the above with quail and other species alike, the first, second, thrid... chick would hatch and mature while the hen was still sitting and the chick(s) would eventually want to, and need to venture out to water, scratch and feed. The hen- unable to tend to the chicks and set the remainder of eggs in the nest at the same time, would eventually abandon the unhatched eggs (which might be only 1-4 days away from piping and hatching. Thus she lays until a clutch of eggs are worthy of a setting session so they (by nature) all hatch within 1-2 days of each other.

In the mean time and as stated by Jack200...among the other potential reasons, they cover them to hide them from predators. "If only the Hen could hide her scent from the predators she would have more success in the hiding attempts".

 

[Heatherrmott]

hens nest was attacked will hen go back and nest on remainder eggs. What if I moved them to keep heat on them should I put them back or try and get her to go to them.. she's a 1st time mom.. they run free