21 Week old pullet sitting on eggs...

[cchardwick]

Well my hen decided to sit on her eggs and after weeks of sitting she got off of the nest. I decided to candle the eggs, there were three just about to hatch, totally solid. Several others were in various stages of development all the way down to just a faint spot. Others were clear. I removed the clear and leflt all the others. The only problem was that I think the hen didn't want to sit anymore. All the chickens were up on the logs roosting and she was pacing back and forth. I didn't see her sit, maybe she did, I'll find out in the AM. I'm thinking maybe the chicks started peeping in the eggs and she got scared and left the nest? At least I know my rooster is fertile because I'm getting an incubator this week and plan on incubating my first batch of eggs next Saturday.

 

[fried green eggs]

You could try hatching those eggs with a heating pad??? Might work? When you get your new incubator make sure you calibrate thermometer and hygrometer and run incubator for a couple days to get everything stable before adding eggs. Good Luck

 

[cchardwick]

I just went into the dark henhouse and the hen was sitting...on the wrong nest! My quess is that a chick probably died in the shell and it started smelling bad so the hen left the nest.

I'm actually getting an R-Com 20 Pro with USB. It has rock solid temps and humidity and artificial intelligence all the way to the day of hatch. It cost me $700 (OUCH!) but at least I won't have to struggle with my temps and humidity year after year, I can just set it and forget it!

I think I'm just going to toss those eggs and start over with my incubator so I have a bunch of chicks all the same age.