Help- how long can nest eggs chill?

casportpony said:

So sorry.

-Kathy

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casportpony said:

So sorry.

-Kathy

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zazouse said:

Look on the brite side, she got threw this and you got years of laying coming from her

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Thanks guys- She's a good mom when I'm not interfering. Its really just as well I guess. I don't have time to hover over chicks this summer any way. Hoping next year she has has a healthy clutch(?) . I'll need more peas by then. My hen has to be about 8 or 9 years old now. You how many more years of eggs does she have?

msmolly said:

Thanks guys- She's a good mom when I'm not interfering. Its really just as well I guess. I don't have time to hover over chicks this summer any way. Hoping next year she has has a healthy clutch(?) . I'll need more peas by then. My hen has to be about 8 or 9 years old now. You how many more years of eggs does she have?

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i have been told they can lay into the late teens and i believe Dylansmom has one like 19 layen, perhaps she can verify this.

Mike and I were joking that our new spalding hen is probably in her 20's and done laying, lol. No sign of her wanting to lay since I got her.

-Kathy

zazouse said:

i have been told they can lay into the late teens and i believe Dylansmom has one like 19 layen, perhaps she can verify this.

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DylansMom said:

This was her second clutch, doubtful she will lay a third.

I accidentally pulled a good egg from my bator last year and it sat in a 72 degree room for 12 hrs. it was still alive when I discovered my error and put it back in. She hatched just fine, but 12 hrs later than the other eggs. However with you moving the eggs I don't think she'll sit on them again. I am glad to hear she is okay, this is why I quit free ranging, lost too many hens in the middle of the night.

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Is that true DylansMom? My hen is probably 8 or 9 now. Does she still have some good years of nesting ahead of her? I've always given her chicks away in the past, but next year I'm keepin them...if she has some....?

msmolly said:

Is that true DylansMom? My hen is probably 8 or 9 now. Does she still have some good years of nesting ahead of her? I've always given her chicks away in the past, but next year I'm keepin them...if she has some....?

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My Cameo black shoulder is 19 and she laid about 10 eggs this year( she has never been a prolific layer). All were clears, but I do not know if that was because of her age or if she didn't care for the young male she was penned with. It was his first year mating and he did fine with the other younger hen in the pen they laid fertile eggs. My old gal laid and hatched 6 of her own last year at 18 yrs. old. This year I felt sorry for her since she had clears under her for 3 weeks so I gave her my eggs from the incubator and she finished them for me and is a happy mom now. Hopefully you will have another 9 years of laying, at least,

and hopefully if I put my old gal in with a more mature male next year she will lay fertile eggs again.

msmolly said:

Darn, wish I'd seen your post earlier- so they would have survived after she went back to them the next morning. She sat on them all day, but was forced to move them into the pen last night- at which point I couldn't get her back on them. If I'd known for sure they were still viable, I could have used a little more bribery and coercion to get her to sit on them ...dag nabit! Her first nest was in the hen house this year, but a coon snuck in and stole eggs right from under her! Then, I was so concerned and impatient, I kept lifting her up by the tail daily to check the eggs. I'm pretty sure I caused way too much disturbance to the eggs. The previous two years, I neither knew where the eggs were, or when they would hatch, and they did great. She hatched 6 chicks both times with none of my snoopy interference. I'm pretty sure she chose to nest outside the pen to get away from nosy Nelly here(that would be me). Boy, have I learned my lesson...sad face.

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Don't beat yourself up over this! My first hen, many years ago was totally free range and for the first 3 or 4 years everything went fine. She would find a spot in a run-in shed or an old unused dog house and nest in there, she hatched a clutch every year. Then for no reason at all she just decided to make a nest out in the middle of the pasture, makes it hard to mow and both nests got raided by egg thieves that first year. She was okay but the eggs were ruined, the following year she did it again and we tried to construct some shelter around her, but she just kept leaving the nest and wouldn't sit on the eggs with it there. She abandoned those eggs and later laid a second clutch in the pasture again. We gave up and let her be, she drowned on top of those eggs during a night of extremely violent thunderstorms. I think the thunder and lightning was so bad she wouldn't keep her head tucked under her wing and the rain was so heavy she ended up inhaling too much of it. She was dead and soaking wet and the eggs were in perfect condition under her. If I'd had a bator I would have tried, but I didn't, so I lost the hen and all the eggs. They will do what they want when they are free ranging, you have no say in it and she may have chosen to nest outside whether you were nosey or not. I keep my hens penned from mid-March thru Oct. they are safe, but the trade off is that hardly any of them go broody, just my old gal is reliable.

Thanks DylansMom, and also so happy to hear that they can be fertile thrue 18 years! Yipee! Though on your other story, I had heard peafowl could drown in the rain, but assumed those were negative tales told by the naysayers. Sad to learn its true. I'm so sorry for your loss- but as you say- she was determined to have it her way- (oops, really didn't mean to rhyme)
. Well, I appreciate the encouraging words. We'll enjoy a quiet year as "empty nesters" and try again next year.