Will a broody kick out a bad egg?

[chickenphile]

I have a broody silkie that has been sitting for awhile. Will she instinctively know an egg is bad and remove it from the nest? I have not candled the eggs under her yet. She is outside and I have to bring everything outside when it is not so cold out. It is 20 degrees out this morning.

thanks
Chris

 

[call ducks]

hi my call duck sat till they blow up and we throw them out so i think that you may have too remove the bad ones

 

[Lollipop]

Good question. I`ve noticed eggs expelled from the nest on occasion and have always heard that they will. However, as call ducks has said, broody hens will often set til eggs are no longer viable, which causes me to believe that eggs expelled from the nest are done by accident as the hen moves the eggs in turning. Sometimes hens get 100% hatch, but often 1 or 2 will not hatch. Why were these not expelled, if the hen knows the difference?

 

[kees]

I've had that happen a couple of times. I'd repeatedly put the egg back until I gave up and tossed it away. Hey, if the chicken didn't want her own egg, I didn't either!

Suzy

 

[KattyKillFish]

 

[jimnjay]

I have had my Silkies push eggs out of the nest and when candled they were duds or quitters. I have also had one sit on an egg and it exploded, poor thing and she kept sitting until the rest hatched.

 

[Chicken Girl]

My broody ate 2 out of the 9 I put under her! LOL One of them I know had a baby in it at some point. I just hope she don’t eat the babies!

Chicken Girl

 

[pascopol]

Quote:
Some experienced hens will kick out dead eggs.

I believe they can sense the lower temperature of bad eggs.

Developing egg is a live thing, so it creates its own heat besides being warmed up by hens body.

 

[warmfuzzies]

My first- time broody kicked out a cracked one. It was alive when I opened it, but had cracked pretty bad so it would not have hatched. Smarty!!

 

[Majestic Lane Poultry]

I keep track. I mark all the eggs 1,2,3, etc. I do this for two reasons. One is to see if she has stolen eggs from another hen and the other reason is for record keeping.

With the record keeping it can be because some of the eggs are from different pens, if the same one comes up with two bad candlings, and if the hen kicks it out of the nest more than once. If in a clutch of 8+...she kicks out the same egg twice, I take her advice. I figure she is smarter than I am in this area, lol.