Recycling Eggs

Recycling Eggs

Despite your best efforts, your hen is still going to lay plenty of eggs. A clutch will consist of 8 - 12 eggs. A lot of hens will lay many more than this, and never show any interest in building a nest or sitting on the eggs. No one has been able to determine with any certainty why some (if not most) button hens simply have no interest in their eggs, but it seems that a hen who goes "broody" (chooses to build a nest and set the eggs) is the exception rather than the rule.

If your hen is one of those rare birds who will nest, I've developed a little system that will keep her from having to lay a whole clutch each time. My system presumes that your female lives alone or with other females, and will not be laying fertilized eggs. She'll have to lay the first clutch herself, and you probably won't even know she's going to nest until one day you'll go by and see she's piled the eggs all up and built a little fortress around them with her bedding. The key is to leave the eggs where she lays them, even if they are scattered all about the cage. If she's going to nest, she'll do all the work of making a nest and moving the eggs at the last minute. Buttons don't need any "special" materials for building a nest; generally, they will just haul over bits of their bedding. Pine chips or shavings seems to be a good choice. Buttons don't use string or dirt or feathers, because they can't weave or build like many flying birds do. They just sort of make a pile with a depression in the middle for themselves and their eggs.