Lost & Found : white hen

[monita]

noticed my hen missing today... she was here yesterday so i went to look for her. looked in the tree line where she likes to hang out and no hen. figured i would get some feed out of the shed and call her maybe she would come for feed. walked in the shed and there she was, i figured she may be laying an egg so i would give her some privacy and went to walk away but she jumped off her nest and ran out the door. looked to see if she had laid and OMG there were 18 eggs in the nest. what should i do? is it alright to just let her keep them and do what she will or should i take them and put them in the bator? BTW... we don't eat yard eggs so no thoughts to that and they are probably fertile since my roo doesn't give the poor girl a break.

 

[Toast n Jelly]

I would candle them and see if there are started ones then remove the ones that aren't and move the hen to a private place with her started eggs or if you prefer place the started ones in your bator. All depends on if you want chicks I quess.

 

[Atlchick]

Just wondering . . . why don't you eat the yard eggs?

 

[monita]

cause when i was young we were visiting someone and they had chickens and ate yard eggs. well i was cooking breakfast and got to like the 3rd egg and cracked it and there was a half developed chick in it. i threw the frying pan and all out the back door and haven't eaten a yard egg since. it was very disturbing.

 

[ginbart]

OMG I think I would have thrown up. But if you have laying boxes and collected them everyday that wouldn’t happen. I have a hard time eating eggs not because of that but because they make me sick. what do you do with the eggs you collect?


I think you should let her take care of them. It's a lot easier that way. Did she go back on the nest?

 

[PortageGirl]

Unless she's truly broody... which it doesn't sound like she is or she'd be on that nest 24/7 with only 10 minutes break here and there, those eggs have been there a while and I wouldn't risk eating them.

You could candle and/or float test them, and then, if they sink, maybe cook em up and feed em back to the chickens, but I sure wouldn't eat them.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

Quote:
I guess that might be possible, but just speaking from my experiences, I have never been able to convince a hen to brood anywhere but where she decided to brood. I would just cage her in where she was, so I wouldn't have to worry about another hens eggs getting in later or for the hens protection.
When I would find eggs that were God only knows how old, I would have to put my thinking cap on to decide what to do with it, because it wasn't going to be sold.

 

[monita]

well she is not broody. she is laying then leaving. now up to 20 eggs and i think we are gonna catch her tonight and cage her cause i have no room to incubate them in the bator. we definately are NOT eating them. after we cage her with her eggs we will see what she will do then.