"Natural" Chciken Hatching

[SconnieChicks]

A couple of my girls have started laying in a couple of secluded places outside the coop.There is a new egg there daily it seems. What are the chances that they may start setting on these and they will hatch naturally?
I really think this would be awesome but don't want to get my hopes up. I assume this won't happen with them going back to the coop in the evenings.
Any thoughts??

 

[Judy]

A hen has to go broody to hatch eggs, which means she stays on the nest 24/7, except for a daily outing of a few minutes to eat, etc. A common test of whether a hen has gone broody is to make sure she stays on the nest overnight. So, no, she's not broody. It's possible she is collecting a clutch of eggs and will go broody soon. If she does, it will happen whether the eggs are there or not. They will go broody with no eggs under them; it's a hormonal thing. If you want to hatch chicks, I'd collect the fertile eggs at room temp, maybe in your kitchen, marking and rotating them, and eating the ones that are over a week old, not much older. Then if she does go broody, put them under her all at once, so they will all hatch at more or less the same time. This is because, once chicks have been hatching for a day or two, she will abandon any unhatched eggs to care for the chicks. Actually, people have also hatched refrigerated eggs.

 

[thechooks22]

What breed/breeds

 

[SconnieChicks]

Thanks much for the info.
As far as breeds, I have no idea