Need help please!!

[donavonef]

I have a Japanese bantam hen who's been laying eggs for the past 2 weeks. She has 8 eggs so far. She is with a rooster so I'm pretty sure they're fertile. She hasn't laid an egg for the past 3 days. My questions are: since it has been over 2 weeks since the first egg has been laid, are they still any good for her to hatch? Since she's been laying for 2 weeks and hasn't laid in the past 3 days, what's the chances of her going broody and hatching the eggs? She is not a young hen and I was told she has been broody before, but I am not 100% sure. Thanks in advanced and any info regarding anything mentioned is greatly appreciated

 

[eviemethugh]

Is she sitting or doing anything else? Unless you wrote the date on each one you couldn't remove the first eggs anyway. Usually 7 days is the longest you would keep eggs for incubators but we know farmers who have hens disappear for 5 weeks by themselves and come back with 24 babies. The only explanation I know for that is that they saved as many eggs as they could by themselves.
If she can't comfortably or easily sit on all of them you either need to make the nest deeper so the eggs stack or take a few away at random. You can candle them at day 7 to see if anything is happening. Look in the learning center for info on that.
But all is for naught if she isn't really broody.

 

[eviemethugh]

Usually a hen can sit on a dozen of her own eggs.

 

[donavonef]

She isn't broody but when she lays an egg she'll sit on them and lay it. She'll sometimes sit at night before she roost for the night but she lays another egg when she does that. So it seems she's only in the nest box when she's laying