How long will a chicken egg stay fertile for?
Hens lay an egg most days and just wander off and leave them, they rarely go broody, some hens never do. Silkies are renouned for going broody but not in the winter. She won’t be interested in hatching these eggs out. Just take the eggs away and eat them, this is why we keep chickens to eat the eggs! If you have a cockerel then the eggs will be fertile if he is treading (mating) her but you can still eat the eggs, no chick develops until a few days after the eggs have been warmed either by the hen sitting or in an incubator. I had a bantam last year take herself off and hatch chicks in the hedge. There were 10 eggs hatched so she obviously laid the 1st one 10 days before last one. The time before she laid 17 eggs, we didn’t let her hatch them all but I expect they would have all hatched and she wouldn’t have started sitting until the last egg was laid. I’ve had hens go broody the Spring after they hatched, ie around 9 months old. In the spring if she goes broody you will know, she will
