Do you think a chicken (hen) can identify her own eggs?

Question

Do you think that there is enough of a minute difference in eggs that a hen could identify her own eggs if they were mixed in with others?

Answer 1

yes

Answer 2

I don't know. But my chickens have set on others until hatched. One of my chickens set a duck egg and raised it.  I guess chickens are like mother hens, take care of all the young-uns. Maybe that is where the term, mother hen, came from.

Answer 3

I believe they can't smell or see the differences.

They might remember location if they have already laid a few in a certain spot already.

Or start laying on a spot occupied by eggs from another hen.

As JH mentioned, they will even sit on stones.

I've used pink and purple plastic easter eggs filled with sand and golf balls to get them to lay and sit in a particular location.

Some feed shops also sell wooden and ceramic eggs.

Answer 4

yes i think there is a possability. Mother nature can do amazing things. I don't know how you could tell she recognized them though. but I bet she could. They are actually really smart creatures with induvidual personalities. I don't know why we kill them...

Answer 5

yes. i think the hen can.

Answer 6

NO!!!  they will sit on  any eggs.. i've had chickens hatch ducks.. geese hatch chickens...  its kinda funny.  A rooster will fight himself in a mirror....they are not 'aware' as we understand it.

Answer 7

A hen can't tell the difference between her eggs and any others.  However, a hen can tell which is her nest.  Course this doesn't mean that more than one hen won't claim the same nest!  But, if a nest is disturbed some hens will abandon it and find a new one.  Which is why those of us who free range our chickens are constantly on the look out for new clutches (nests).

Answer 8

No it cant ...............unless the eggs are from a different species or have a different size or colour

Answer 9

No, she can't tell the difference, they will even set on a "nest egg", a smooth egg shaped rock. They will not only set larger eggs like duck eggs or smaller eggs like guinea eggs, but they will raise their chicks like their own as well.

Answer 10

absolutely not, im sure that when a hen lays eggs its not even aware it is doing so. We have this strange belief that we aren't the only ones aware of our existence, but really we are. A chicken cannot actually recognize anything, all actions are controlled by what we would see as subconcious, all driven by instincts, so no it couldn't recognize its own eggs, it couldnt even recognize itself in a mirror

Answer 11

No, you can put duck eggs under a hen and it would still  sit on them until the ducklings come out.

Answer 12

No they don't, they'll set on golf balls and door k***s.  Yes they certainly know when they're laying an egg.  Just watch one sometimes.

Answer 13

yes. a  crow can do with that of cuckoo eggs

Answer 14

No I have had many a broody hen set on eggs and hatch them that were not that hen's eggs.

Answer 15

i think they can. instincts work well in animals.

Answer 16

No, she can't. I raise chickens. I've seen two hens 'setting' side-by-side. When one hen went outside to take a break, the other hen stole ALL 14 of her eggs and rolled them under her...to be hatched. When the other hen came back, there wasn't a fight. She looked and looked for those eggs. And when the other hen took a break...same thing happened.

Setting means covering the eggs for 21 days, with her body heat, until they hatched.

All those eggs were from different hens, plus the ones for those two hens.