My black Australorp has been sitting on eggs for two weeks. Today was a particularly hot, muggy day. When I got home from work she was sitting in the "next-door" box and no one was covering the eggs.

I went inside hoping it was just a momentary lapse, but when I checked two hours later, she was still sitting next door. The original nest had one broken egg in it and was pretty stinky, so I removed all the eggs and cleaned the nest.

When I cracked the eggs, not a single one was fertile.

If the eggs had been developing, would she know by two weeks that there were chicks? I wonder if something told her that nest was a dud and so she decided to begin again on fresh eggs?

Darn it, I was so looking forward to peeps!

--Johanna