will a hen kick out bad eggs?

[Haley's Birds]

My daughters hen has just started setting the am. I went out to check on her a few minutes ago and there was an egg out of the next .. cracked.(don't know if she kicked it out .. or the roo pecked the hole in it) it is about 3 feet away from the nest.

 

[Lobzi]

I have heard that they do (kick out non-viable eggs). I know my hen removed the golf ball from her nest box. I was trying to encourage her to continue using the box but obviously she was too smart for my efforts with the ball. Now I leave 3 eggs at a time to get her to continue laying in the box. I remove the oldest one each day.

 

[horsejody]

A hen will often kick out duds.