My hen won't incubate the eggs?

[dann20201]

So I have a young australorp hen and it had laid its first eggs today. It is its first time and it had laid 2 eggs. Both are unfertilized and still, my hen won't sit on the eggs. So does my hen care about them? It had been hours since the hen hasn't been sitting on the eggs. It never did, it just laid the eggs, sat for 5 mins (because of Labor pain) and then carried on. So will the hen ever sit on the eggs?


Important Information:

Breed: Australorp
Age: 4-5 Months
Eggs: 2 (in 1 day, same time, first eggs)
Type: UnFertilized

Please let me know why it isnt sitting on the eggs.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

First of all, why do you want her sitting on unfertilized pullet eggs?

Secondly, chickens aren't like parrots or other birds that lay a small clutch and sit.
Most chickens never set on eggs. Even broody prone breeds often won't set.
They have been bred for production not reproduction.

Unfertilized eggs won't hatch and if a bird incubates them, the egg will just go bad.
Pullet eggs shouldn't be incubated since they are small with limited space and nutrition among other reasons.

 

[1906]

Hens will only sit on their eggs when they are broody. The rest of the time you are free to collect them and use it. A young hen who laid her first egg/s will not be broody. It takes a while for their system to get the egg laying right. In the begining you might find eggs without shells, eggs with funny shapes, they will be small and as yours did, lay more than one egg in one day. In time everything will settle and you will get normal eggs. Normaly a hen will lay only one egg in 24 hours, maybe for 6 - 7 days in a row (if it is a high egg producing breed, like an Austrolop) take off one day and go one laying for another 7 days in a row. I have a Rhode Island Red hen who lays 9- 11 days in a row before taking off one day, every hen will do it differently. My hens got broody for the first time when they were 8 months of age. A broody hen will sit on eggs (whether it is her's or not) even if there is no rooster in the flock which means it is not fertile eggs. If it is not fertile eggs, you should not allow her to do that because she will sit on them until little chicks hatch which is obviously not going to happen. In that time she will leave her nest only briefly to relieve herself and eat a little bit and she will loose weight which is okay for 21 days until the chicks hatch, but if no chicks are going to hatch, she will keep on sitting on the eggs and just waste away. For now you can collect the eggs and enjoy them! In fact you should remove the eggs as soon as possible to avoid them from starting to eat the eggs, because once they did that, it would be very hard to get them to stop doing it.

 

[Monkeybean415]

Hens will only sit on eggs when they go broody and it's unpredictable when that will happen (if it ever does) We have nine grown chickens and only one has ever been broody. Are you keeping the chickens for the eggs? I'm not sure I understand why you'd want her sitting on unfertilized eggs. We collect our eggs everyday. We don't have a rooster so none are fertilized. If you want to hatch them with a broody you'd need to have fertilized eggs and either have a broody hen (you cannot make a hen go broody) or an incubator

 

[dann20201]

I'm not saying that it should waste its time incubating the unfertilized eggs, I'm just wondering if my hen knows its not fertilized. And isn't it natural instinct to incubate eggs?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

It was a natural instinct for chickens to incubate eggs over 500 years ago. Most breeds have had that instinct bred out of them.
They're bred to lay eggs, not raise kids.
They don't really know or care if they're fertilized. If a hen's hormones kick in that make them want to raise a family, they'll set on fertile eggs, infertile eggs, fake eggs, golf balls or no eggs at all.
If down the road, you get a broody hen and the eggs are infertile, it's best to break them from the broodiness quickly.

 

[1906]

dann20201, thank you very much for the ovation you gave me, it was very kind of you.

 

[dann20201]

Oh Alright!
Thank You!

 

[Missnean]

So I have a young australorp hen and it had laid its first eggs today. It is its first time and it had laid 2 eggs. Both are unfertilized and still, my hen won't sit on the eggs. So does my hen care about them? It had been hours since the hen hasn't been sitting on the eggs. It never did, it just laid the eggs, sat for 5 mins (because of Labor pain) and then carried on. So will the hen ever sit on the eggs?


Important Information:

Breed: Australorp
Age: 4-5 Months
Eggs: 2 (in 1 day, same time, first eggs)
Type: UnFertilized

Please let me know why it isnt sitting on them

 

[Missnean]

Hens don’t go broody right after their first eggs are laid