How long do eggs last....

[jmdarrow]

My dad became I'll at the time my girls started laying. We would fine an egg or two a day when we came home in the afternoon.
Needless to say, my dad passed peacefully. Now, I am home all day and this morning I was able to spend the morning to see what is going on.
I have 6 hens. They are almost 6 mos. I thought 1-2 eggs a day? Hmmm....
Then there's Charlotte....she flew the coop....and is sitting on 9 eggs, I think.
Now there have been times when I would find a small group of girls who flew the coop, so I am assuming they are not all hers, maybe?

I will post pics of eggs when she gets out of the weeds.
Are they safe? I have no way of knowing how long they have been there. BTW, I found my first egg on July 31 in the coop and it was small.

 

[sourland]

Condolences on your loss. Do you mean are the eggs safe to eat or is she safe setting on them there. I would not eat the eggs if she is setting on them regardless of whether or not I had a rooster. If you are thinking on allowing her to try to hatch them there, she has the possibility of being taken by a predator. Hopefully I have helped with your question.

 

[jmdarrow]

Thanks for the info! Now, do I just pick her up off those eggs and grab them and why won't they use the nest boxes?

 

[Monguire]

The brooding instinct hits every hen differently. Some get cranky and pace around the coop/run growling at everything that moves others get flighty and slink off to someplace they think is safe to set on a clutch of eggs. Your management style will directly affect the broodiness of your hens but there is still a VERY large spectrum of unpredictability where broody hens are concerned.

For instance, I use roll-out nest boxes for my eggs. Not happy with the inability to build a clutch of eggs in the nest box, one of my broodies started laying out in the pasture in what she felt was a safe place. It wasn't and it was also exposed to the elements so I removed the few eggs there and made the area as unattractive as possible for future laying and she responded by starting a clutch in a corner of the coop. At least this place was sheltered and protected so I decided to let her proceed. Over the coming days she hollowed out a nice "nest" in the sand and continued laying. She then went full-on broody and stopped laying and began setting on the small pile night and day.

One can play with the variables of broodiness as much as one likes but there is no guarantee of any desired outcome. If your goal is to hatch chicks, maybe persuade her to lay/set in a more protected area (by making the current nest area less desirable or setting up a temporary shelter over/around it). If your goal is just to get eggs for eating, you can either let her work herself out of the broody cycle or intervene and break her of it early. There are pros and cons to each and methods for so doing all through these forums.

However you decide to proceed, the one thing to keep in mind is that chickens thrived LONG before we got ahold of them and started monkeying with their genetics/behavior. Mother nature often seems cruel in her methods but very often the organisms that flourish despite the worst of conditions/odds are the ones that most-greatly augment the future of the species.

 

[aart]

Condolences on your loss.

If you don't have a cockerel, those eggs are not fertile and will not hatch.

It would probably best to break her of her broodiness and strain' then to lay in the coop nests by locking them in there for a week.

Free range birds sometimes need to be 'trained'(or re-trained) to lay in the coop nests, especially new layers. Leaving them locked in the coop for 2-3 days can help 'home' them to lay in the coop nests. They can be confined to coop 24/7 for a few days to a week, or confine them at least until mid to late afternoon. You help them create a new habit and they will usually stick with it.


Broody Breaking

My experience went like this: After her setting for 3 days and nights in the nest, I put her in a wire dog crate with smaller wire on the bottom but no bedding, set up on a couple of 4x4's right in the coop and I would feed her some crumble a couple times a day.

I let her out a couple times a day and she would go out into the run, drop a huge turd, race around running, take a vigorous dust bath then head back to the nest... at which point I put her back in the crate. Each time her outings would lengthen a bit, eating, drinking and scratching more and on the 3rd afternoon she stayed out of the nest and went to roost that evening...event over, back to normal tho she didn't lay for another week or two.

Added nipple waterer to crate after pic was taken.