How to tell if your eggs are fertilized?

[sarahb88]

Hey everyone my name is Sarah and im in Tyler Texas and im new to chickens! My 2 of my hens have started laying and I don't have an incubator but want to try and gets some more females before winter. How do you know if your eggs are fertilized and how do you know when the hen is brooding ? If I didn't end up with a broody hen is there a trick to get them to set on the eggs? On of my hens that is laying keeps moving one of the decoy eggs into the front nesting box with the other decoy egg. Does that mean anything?

 

[BantamFan4Life]

Welcome to BYC! Happy you joined!

 

[Tuhmu]

and good luck with your poultry adventure ! If a hen is broody she won't leave the nest and will fluff herself up really big and make angry noises at you. As far as I know, there's no way to make one go broody.

 

[redsoxs]

Greetings from Kansas, sarahb88, and

! Pleased you joined our flock! You might post your question in the link below - good luck to you!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/18/chicken-behaviors-and-egglaying

 

[drumstick diva]

If you don't have a rooster with your hens, you won't have fertile eggs. I think the hen is pushing the phony eggs to the front because she doesn't want to be a momma and give up her freedom. Just kidding. - if they aren't broody, they won't try to hatch eggs. If they are broody you can't get them off the eggs.

 

[1muttsfan]

Hi and welcome to BYC from northern Michigan

There are two ways to tell if eggs are fertile. One is to crack them open and look for the blastoderm, which in a fertilized egg will look like a little target, if unfertile it is just a round disc. The other way is to incubate them.

There is no way to make a hen go broody - it is a hormonal change that we can not influence. Some breeds of birds, and some individual birds, are more likely to go broody than others. My experience is that they mostly go broody when you do not want them to, and won't when you do