Do chickens get upset when their eggs get taken by humans?

No, chickens do not feel any emotions at all when their eggs are taken, in a flock that lays eggs regularly and where the eggs are collected daily. The only time a hen would feel any kind ofconnection with the eggs is if she is “broody,” that is, ready to sit on a nestof eggs and hatch them.



Unless they’re broody, chickens don’t give a hoot in hell if we take any eggs, unfertilized or fertile. Sorry if this doesn’t fit your mother hen as a loving devoted mother cherished idea but, fact is? Hens are totally indifferent to their eggs except and unless nature has kicked in and told them to brood, and when that instinct kicks in? They’ll brood anything in a nest, chicken egg, duck egg, stray kitten, rock or snake(!).

Eggs that are left in the nesting boxes can become cracked, pooped on, dirty, or simply not safe to eat. If they are fertile, the embryo could even start developing if a hen has been sitting on them. If you are not willing to collect eggs routinely, then chickens are probably not the best choice for your family.

They only know it’s round or about the right size and they “HAVE” to sit there. They actually don’t have a serious clue it’s their potential offspring when they lay eggs. To them it’s just instinct that forces them to “Do this in that place and at this particular time”. Once the chicks start peeping in the nest the hormonal bath the hen brain is going through while brooding seems to lock her in to those peeps and she’ll take good care of those particular chicks for a few weeks after hatching. And btw don’t try stuffing a chick not brooded by a hen under her. She’ll kill the strange chick about 90% of the time.

What’s worse? If by any chance one of those non-broody hens happens to find a cracked egg in her nest and pecks at it out of curiosity and discovers it’s got egg inside that round lump? She’ll devour any egg she can peck a hole in from then on. And she’ll teach her flock mates to do the same. I’ve had to cull an entire flock before for egg eating. It’s not only a heartbreaker it was a financially nasty set back for me. I missed 6 months’ worth of egg production as it takes about that long for chicks to grow to egg-laying size.

Many modern breeds and commercial hybridhens will do nothing with their eggs other than lay them and walk away. Many have had the instinct to brood [sit on their eggs to hatch them] bred out of them over generations. In a modern egg production facility, you do not want a hen to "go broody".