Why will a hen sit on rotten eggs??

[edb]

I've only had chickens a few years and I have never seen this till now. I've had a black Australorp hen sitting on eggs about 3 weeks. I started getting a really bad odor from the hen house. I eased the hen up only to find very rotten eggs. I moved her and cleaned the nesting box so I just checked the next hen(a big brown"Production" hen) and it was the same. Do I need to get Dr. Phil to talk to my hens? Put them POULTRY PROZAC?? Did they have unhappy chic-hoods or what? I need advise on this one.
The rest of my hens nested in bushes around my yard and now have lots of babies chasing them around, could it be something in the hen-house?

 

[sourland]

Instinct is strong, and chicken intelligence is low. I would clean and disinfect the nest boxes as there is probably a high bacterial load in them. Then provide clean nesting material and subsequent nesting attempts should be successful. If other hens are getting into the nests with the broodies andd cracking or breaking eggs this problem is difficult to resolve.

 

[edb]

Thanks sourland!
The nesting area got a good wash, bleach wash and steam cleaning as soon as I vacated the hens.

 

[cmom]

I guess time will tell since you disinfected the nest box and if anyone lays in it and maybe tries to brood in it.

 

[edb]

It dried in our million degree weather yesterday and there are fresh eggs in it this morning.