Author Topic: Sitting hen rejecting egg (Read 2372 times)

suziequeue · « **on:** May 17, 2013, 05:59:09 pm »

We have had a black silkie bantam sitting on some cream legbar eggs for a couple of weeks now. I looked in on her when I got home from work this evening and one of the eggs was out of the nesting box. It had a hole in it and the contents had gone.

Was it her or was it a rat?

taz08 · « **Reply #1 on:** May 17, 2013, 06:56:55 pm »

might have been her,, i had that a couple of years ago

sh3ph3rd · « **Reply #2 on:** May 18, 2013, 12:28:01 pm »

In my experience it's almost unheard of for a hen who's been sitting diligently for weeks to suddenly start dining on her eggs. If one got broken by other means she might clean it up, but I highly doubt she'd just start getting into them.

suziequeue · « **Reply #3 on:** May 18, 2013, 04:37:26 pm »

I thought maybe she had sensed that it wasn't a goer and had chucked it.

She's still diligently sitting on the other eggs.

sh3ph3rd · « **Reply #4 on:** May 19, 2013, 03:02:07 pm »

Yeah, that's likely too, but generally if she's been sitting for weeks and rejects a non-goer so late it'd be pretty 'ripe' and not too likely to be eaten by her. Did it stink or show obvious rot, or look healthy and normal?

My partridge pekin-silky mixes are reliable at removing non-fertile or otherwise nonviable eggs by the end of the first week, generally, but some other hens of mine will sit and sit and sit until I stop them...

Marches Farmer · « **Reply #5 on:** May 19, 2013, 03:20:38 pm »

DO you think the contents leaked out? Unusual for a broody to take to egg-eating and they're generally good at turfing out the non-viable ones.

suziequeue · « **Reply #6 on:** May 19, 2013, 09:49:30 pm »

It didn't stink and there were no stinky patches on the floor of the hutch.

Very odd.

Oh well........ She's still sitting on the rest. Another week to go