Will a broodie cull dud eggs?

[warhorse]

My son told me there was an egg outside the nest cracked open today. I highly doubt it "rolled out" or that she "accidentally kicked it out" as it is fairly deep (about 9-10") with plenty of hay making it bowl-like inside. She has been a stalwart mama and I have only picked her off the nest every couple of days making sure there were no broken ones. Could she have culled a dud? This is about day 14 I think.

 

[TexasVet]

That's about the time she'd do it. If you want to be sure, pick up the shell and sniff it. If it smells rotten, it was a dud.

I just culled a dud from my incubator yesterday, which was day 15. You could smell it as soon as you walked into the room, so I just sniffed every egg till I found it.

Looks stupid, but it works!

Kathy, Bellville TX
www.PivotalForce.com, www.CountryChickens.com

 

[walkswithdog]

Some hens have better instincts than others. Some will kick out progressively after about the 12th day. They get off the nest, come back to find that one egg is significantly cooler than the others and nudge it out. An egg that is still developing holds and generates a tiny amount of it's own heat while the hen is off the nest and a quitter cools off really rapidly.

In fact once I'd figured that out, I can zip out to a nest, run my hands over the eggs, feel any with significant difference and pull it to candle it. Usually either it's dead or some other hen laid a newer egg and it's not to the point of staying warmer from the same development level.

That really helps if I haven't marked the eggs in the nest. I try to be organized and find all the nests, but hens can be SNEAKY and I'm subject to CRS (can't remember s...) and oldzheimers. LOL.

But I've had hens sit til they explode... at the end of a day instincts and peabrains sometimes war to the point of things not working out.

 

[BellLisamo]

hahaha

poor bird lost its sense of smell.

haha, i took some from my gal last night..... she would have let it explode too i think.


stubborn. (there IS A BABY IN THERE!! SIT SIT SIT!!!!, its me that stinks)

 

[Ridgerunner]

Yet I've seen posts where people take eggs that were kicked out, put them in an incubator, and hatch them. Any egg out of the nest is very suspicious, yet no rules are 100%. You can always candle, but if it smells rotten, I'd handle it gently until I could carefully dispose of it. No candling necessary!

 

[kuntrygirl]

I'm glad I saw this post. I was about to ask the same question. I also wondered about eggs that were suspiciously "kicked out" of the nest. Same thing happened to one of my broody hens. About 5 eggs were kicked out and I placed them back in under her. The next day, the eggs were kicked out again and I placed them back in. I guess she was trying to tell me something? I smelled one of the eggs and it smelled rotten, so I cracked it open. It was a fertile egg because the chick was fully developed. I don't know what happened. Maybe it wasn't mean to hatch. I did the same thing for about 2 more. The same thing happened again. All of the eggs were fertile because the chicks were fully developed but just didn't hatch. And this was like day 28. I hope that I did the right thing by removing the egg.

 

[Chicks_N_Horses]

My hen did this.

I read a post on here somewhere where a lady took the 'culled' eggs and she ended up hatching one out.

 

[chickenannie]

I tried sneaking some extra eggs under my turkey hen and she kicked those same ones out every day. Smart lady!

 

[walkswithdog]

I candle and if there's any question, I incubate. They really have very very tiny little brains. OMG if I had an exploding chicken I think I'd die of gag.

If a hen stays broody too long I usually wait the right number of days and stuff chicks under them and take the eggs. Too long and a hen can literally weaken and die. I have a turkey running around with three chicks now - thinks they're hers. Note, not poults. I stole the eggs she kept messing up, substituted chicken eggs and when they should have been due shoved chicks under her from TSC. I hatched the nearly ruined hatch as best I could and managed 7 out of 11 despite their horrid condition.

Hopefully when she goes to do it a second time she'll have it better figured out, she did hatch 1, chick from the clutch of eggs I gave her. I knew because I bought red chicks and the hatched one was black, hatched the same night I added the red ones - kind of neat timing on my part.

Now as a new momma turkey she squashed two, and lost one to a fight with my partridge rock roo, and another letting them get too close to the dog yard (why I bought six) so losses happen but she has it figured out, she's death on anything near her babies and keeps them clear of the dog area. I'd rather she learned on mutt and hatchery chicks than on my precious poults.

Next time she does it, she'll know which end is up. Turkeys are harder than chickens. I've had chickens lose chicks, mess up hatches etc. Substituting under a hen has a better success rate but no guarantees.

Just don't let a broody go on too long, losing a broody is always tragic.