5 ms·

looks like the story stopped just before answering the question in the title

lsaferite 9y ago
Yeah, this is why I came here as well. I was hoping that maybe someone posted the answer to the question I didn't know I wanted an answer for until I saw the article.
- colanderman 9y ago
  I'm pretty sure they eat them so as not to waste nutrients.
- tomjen3 9y ago
  parents had backyard chickens for years. Unfertilized, or even fertilized eggs as the was majority of modern chicken aren't going to lay on them until they hatch, are either eaten or ignored.
gwbas1c 9y ago
Does the hen just try to sit on the eggs and give up at some point?
- jackhack 9y ago
  It depends on the particular bird, but some species will sit on eggs, even to the point of their own starvation. "Broody" is the term -- referring to a general nature to sit on and nurture eggs, working themselves into an almost hypnotic state. Chinese Silkies are known for this. Buff Orpingtons are also good "hatchers." I have to go in and collect eggs, and pet on my birds to rouse them from their broody state, then force them out of the henhouse to go eat & drink. Otherwise she'll literally sit there on those eggs all day & night. After a while, the hen might break the eggs and eat them. A way to train against this is to 1) never let it happen (remove eggs promptly) so they don't develop a taste for eggs or 2) give them golf balls to sit on. Birds go through phases. Very broody for a few months, then disinterested, then back to broody, eating eggs for a while, ignoring them, etc.
- marcosdumay 9y ago
  They do give up shortly after some eggs hatch, what is a problem if you mix eggs with different maturity. Some hens learn to eat the uncollected eggs, what is also a problem because they don't know beforehand what eggs will hatch either, and start eating them at random. If the eggs are left there, some animal will inevitably come and eat them. What is also a problem, because they will learn there are eggs there, and will not care to only look for abandoned ones. Overall, it's not healthy to not collect the unfertilized eggs.
mac01021 9y ago
I think this probably mostly answers the remaining part of the question: http://articles.extension.org/pages/65600/what-happens-to-unfertilized-eggs-in-the-wild http://articles.extension.org/pages/65600/what-happens-to-un... But really I posted this hoping some resident of hacker news who grew up on a poultry farm will come along and tell us what's what.
msisk6 9y ago
Actually they have it right at the beginning. Hens don't know if an egg is fertilized or not. Most will just lay and leave. Some go broody and will sit on the eggs until they hatch. Some hens will sit on the eggs (and collect any nearby eggs and sit on a pile of them) until they die if they don't hatch. We have about 100 birds and at any given time two or three will be broody. We collect the eggs everyday so sometimes the broody hen will just sit there on nothing or on one of our "fake" eggs (we put fake eggs in the places we want the hens to lay their eggs). We'll remove the broody hens from the coop several times a day until we break them of the habit. That usually works. Occasionally we'll have snakes get into the coop and eat eggs. If the snake gets a porcelain fake egg that pretty much the end of that snake eventually. Rattlesnakes are more difficult, but we've gotten pretty good had removing those, too. Our big problem this year is hawks (our chickens free range). We've lost about 20 birds this year just to hawks. Just this last weekend hawks killed three (flew away with two and mostly maimed a third I had to cull) and one hen got away missing her tail feathers and received some deep cuts our vet stitched up. She got away because our dominate rooster attacked and killed the hawk after her.
- gadders 9y ago
  In the UK, the big problem is foxes. We have an electric fence and automated coop door closer now. We also have a guy that enjoys shooting and roams the fields round our house shooting them.
  - frankus 9y ago
    I've been thinking of building an automated coop door closer. Can you link me to some more info on yours?
    - msisk6 9y ago
      We're been using this one the past few years: https://www.amazon.com/Automatic-Chicken-Coop-Door-Standard/dp/B01EN3O4MY https://www.amazon.com/Automatic-Chicken-Coop-Door-Standard/... It has a solar panel and rechargeable battery and you program in your lat/long and optional + or - times for the door to remain open or close around sunrise and sunset. It works well. Of course, you could hack something up with a micro-controller to do the same thing rather easily.

Yeah, this is why I came here as well. I was hoping that maybe someone posted the answer to the question I didn't know I wanted an answer for until I saw the article.

colanderman 9y ago
I'm pretty sure they eat them so as not to waste nutrients.
tomjen3 9y ago
parents had backyard chickens for years. Unfertilized, or even fertilized eggs as the was majority of modern chicken aren't going to lay on them until they hatch, are either eaten or ignored.

gwbas1c 9y ago

Does the hen just try to sit on the eggs and give up at some point?

jackhack 9y ago
It depends on the particular bird, but some species will sit on eggs, even to the point of their own starvation. "Broody" is the term -- referring to a general nature to sit on and nurture eggs, working themselves into an almost hypnotic state. Chinese Silkies are known for this. Buff Orpingtons are also good "hatchers." I have to go in and collect eggs, and pet on my birds to rouse them from their broody state, then force them out of the henhouse to go eat & drink. Otherwise she'll literally sit there on those eggs all day & night. After a while, the hen might break the eggs and eat them. A way to train against this is to 1) never let it happen (remove eggs promptly) so they don't develop a taste for eggs or 2) give them golf balls to sit on. Birds go through phases. Very broody for a few months, then disinterested, then back to broody, eating eggs for a while, ignoring them, etc.
marcosdumay 9y ago
They do give up shortly after some eggs hatch, what is a problem if you mix eggs with different maturity. Some hens learn to eat the uncollected eggs, what is also a problem because they don't know beforehand what eggs will hatch either, and start eating them at random. If the eggs are left there, some animal will inevitably come and eat them. What is also a problem, because they will learn there are eggs there, and will not care to only look for abandoned ones. Overall, it's not healthy to not collect the unfertilized eggs.

mac01021 9y ago

I think this probably mostly answers the remaining part of the question: http://articles.extension.org/pages/65600/what-happens-to-unfertilized-eggs-in-the-wild http://articles.extension.org/pages/65600/what-happens-to-un... But really I posted this hoping some resident of hacker news who grew up on a poultry farm will come along and tell us what's what.

msisk6 9y ago

Actually they have it right at the beginning. Hens don't know if an egg is fertilized or not. Most will just lay and leave. Some go broody and will sit on the eggs until they hatch. Some hens will sit on the eggs (and collect any nearby eggs and sit on a pile of them) until they die if they don't hatch. We have about 100 birds and at any given time two or three will be broody. We collect the eggs everyday so sometimes the broody hen will just sit there on nothing or on one of our "fake" eggs (we put fake eggs in the places we want the hens to lay their eggs). We'll remove the broody hens from the coop several times a day until we break them of the habit. That usually works. Occasionally we'll have snakes get into the coop and eat eggs. If the snake gets a porcelain fake egg that pretty much the end of that snake eventually. Rattlesnakes are more difficult, but we've gotten pretty good had removing those, too. Our big problem this year is hawks (our chickens free range). We've lost about 20 birds this year just to hawks. Just this last weekend hawks killed three (flew away with two and mostly maimed a third I had to cull) and one hen got away missing her tail feathers and received some deep cuts our vet stitched up. She got away because our dominate rooster attacked and killed the hawk after her.

gadders 9y ago
In the UK, the big problem is foxes. We have an electric fence and automated coop door closer now. We also have a guy that enjoys shooting and roams the fields round our house shooting them.
- frankus 9y ago
  I've been thinking of building an automated coop door closer. Can you link me to some more info on yours?
  - msisk6 9y ago
    We're been using this one the past few years: https://www.amazon.com/Automatic-Chicken-Coop-Door-Standard/dp/B01EN3O4MY https://www.amazon.com/Automatic-Chicken-Coop-Door-Standard/... It has a solar panel and rechargeable battery and you program in your lat/long and optional + or - times for the door to remain open or close around sunrise and sunset. It works well. Of course, you could hack something up with a micro-controller to do the same thing rather easily.