*L* Well, I'd suggest going out at night--she'll be calmer in the dark and won't be able to see as well. Take a flashlight along and use it to candle the eggs one by one, also look for cracks. I'll bet you'll be able to spot the bad egg right away, if it isn't already broken.

I also think that 15 eggs might be too many, even for a Buff Orp to cover. How long has she been setting them? If it's more than a week, you should be able to safely discard any that are clear. If other hens can still get to her nest to lay more eggs, I'd take a pencil along and mark your hatching eggs with an X, that way you can tell which eggs are freshly laid and remove them.

Good luck with your hatch!

Velvet ~:>

Hi velvet. She is in an entire stall by herself. I closed the small door from the outside, so the other chickens can only go in and out of the other stall opposite from her. At one point they WERE laying their eggs under her. So, do you think that bad egg will affect the other eggs or chicks when they hatch???

The bad egg will likely get broken and removed by the hen at some point, unless she is only a few days from the hatch. Then it might make it. I'd get it out of there, as the egg yolk can soil the chicks' feathers and they can get a fatal chill from it--cleaning that gunk off of them would be a nasty chore and a half! But if you are asking will the one bad egg make the other eggs go bad, no it won't. :)

Velvet ~:>

Hi there velvet,,No, I figured the bad egg would not affect the other eggs, but maybe make the chicks sick. I will see about removing it tonight. Thanks,,,and by the way,,,since I posted this, my silkie and ANOTHER buff orpington are now setting as well. UUUGH, I will have more chicks than I will know what to do with.

All of them will have the silkie gene because my roosters are all silkies. They should be pretty interesing. The hens are RIR's, Buffs, Barred Rocks, Wyandottes, leghorns and Austrolorps.

I will take pics when they are fully feathered.

Thanks for the help
Flowersnhens

Wow, yes please do take & post pics! :)

Velvet ~:>

Well, unfortunately the whole bunch of eggs were bad..UUUUGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! GROSS !!!!!!!!!!!!. I had to take her off of the nest and dispose of them. The entire coop STUNK horribly. I got rid of the eggs (they were going on 4 weeks)and cleaned up the nesting box. Maybe she will have better luck next time. I will keep you posted.
Flowernhens.

OH my heart goes out to you. What bad luck. Hope it works next time.

Hi gardendawgie, Well, I think she broke them herself by stepping on them,,there were so many of them in there she had no room to move around without stepping on them. There must have been atleast 12 of them. Anyways, I cleaned it all out plus the other group of eggs that my silkie and another buff orpington were sitting on temporarily, (on and off) and now we will start fresh. So today when I collected eggs there were 16 fresh ones..and they ALL came into the house. We were short on eggs because there were 3 hens setting,,,and some of the other hens would lay where they were sitting,,so I didn't know which ones were new and which ones were older. Uuugh. This weekend the entire coop will get cleaned out and fresh bedding is going in. Then we well ALL be happy !!!

I mark my eggs with an X, or a date so I can keep newer eggs out of a sitting hen's box. I've seen a hen trying to sit 22 eggs once. Problem with letting so many eggs build up is that a hen needs to move the eggs several times a day so they won't be in the same position all the time. She can't possibly do that if there are too many eggs in the box. She also cannot keep the eggs on the periphery at the right brooding temperature. That means if any get shoved to the side of the nest and out from under her breast they'll chill out and it'll slow them down or kill them. It's a good way to loose a lot of eggs and get nothing back for your time or her effort.