Will A momma hen eat her babies????? I have a hen that started out with a dozen eggs she was laying on...now 3 have cracked opened we find just the shells no babies??? Is it possible that she is eating the babies??? Or maybe they were rotten eggs...smells really bad!! I cracked on opened to find out if their was babies in them and their was, the one I opened did!! SORRY BABY CHICK :**( Will the mother hen crack them open???

-- Vicki Summer (vickisummer@hotmail.com), August 13, 2001

Answers

If a broody gets a busted egg, she will "tidy up" by eating it. It is very nasty, I know. I've had lots of broody hens, and had a few rotten eggs, but I have never known a hen to eat a hatchling...The nest can become pretty foul after a rotten egg busts. If she doesn't have a hatch by 22 or 23 days, get her off the nest and clean it up; it will only get worse.

-- mary (marylgarcia@aol.com), August 13, 2001.

If it's really hot, sometimes they accidentally break the eggs from the heat alone. I've had that happen too. Messy.

-- Dee in NJ (gdgtur@goes.com), August 13, 2001.

Unless you placed eggs under her after she had begun to set, they all should hatch within a day of each other. If some are broken early, I'd look for another cause. Is she isolated? I've had other hens get into a nest with one setting and try to lay. Sometimes broken eggs result.

-- Mona in OK (modoc@ipa.net), August 14, 2001.

Do you have any other hens in the same pen? I've had a problem in the past with another hen sneaking in and stealing the eggs/with chicks about ready to hatch and eat them while the momma got off her nest to eat. She taught a couple of the other hens to do the same. We never had that problem before we got her.

-- Sharon (spangenberg@hovac.com), August 14, 2001.