First time Broody BO Sitting on Nest of 14 Eggs - 1 Week to go!

[BoiseChik]

Hello, We are trying our hand at hatching a nest of fertilized eggs with our two year old BO. She was very clearly broody and we decided to get some fertilized eggs from a friend. We ended up with fourteen eggs, of various breeds. My friend has a flock of 20 or so hens with one Americana rooster. She said, "He likes his job." So we hoped and assumed all the eggs would be fertilized. She gathered the eggs for me for about 3 days and kept them room temp, in a carton, tilting the carton a few times a day.
Our broody had chosen a nesting box to sit in, so we were able to give her a private area of the coop with water and food within "pecking distance" and she has been faithfully sitting on the eggs for 3 days. This morning is the fourth morning. We also tented our coop with a tarp because we are having a heat wave, and that put the coop in full shade and seems to have lowered the temps in the coop.
So, here are my questions and concerns... We gave her 14 eggs with the hopes that we'd get a few more chicks, but was that too many? (Everytime I peek at her she has every egg tucked under her.)
I tried candling five of the eggs on the 3rd evening last night, and saw nothing! I basically just held the eggs up to the porch light after dark, but I'd like to try using a super bright LED flash light too. So, was that too early to try candling the eggs? Now I'm wondering if they were even fertilized. When should I start candling the eggs? Is it important to candle all of them and remove ones that aren't developing so they don't explode in the nest?
Lastly, on determining gender of the chicks...someone told me that a pointed egg is a rooster and a rounded egg is a hen, but that sounds like an old wives tale. Can you determine gender as day old chicks...comparing the pin feathers or something?
Thank you for your insight! :-]

 

[BoiseChik]

Here are some pics.

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[BoiseChik]

 

[GitaBooks]

My hen just went broody yesterday!

14 eggs may be too many. My bantams usually get around 3-5 eggs if full sized and around 6-8 if bantam sized. My silkie gets 6-8 full sized eggs and my full sized chickens get 6-9 full sized eggs. However, if she can cover them all and keep them warm, this shouldn't be a problem.

However, a rooster can only breed with so many hens. It is suggested that a rooster only have up to 12 hens to breed with.

I certainly wouldn't give up on the eggs yet. Get a strong flashlight, tape a piece of thick cardboard over it, and cut a small hole in the center of the cardboard (for a home-made candler). Than go into a dark room and candle the egg. If you can't see anything, still don't give up. Eggs sometimes surprise you.
I don't think I've ever had an unfertilized egg explode in a nest, so as long as the hen isn't kicking them around a lot when she gets up, I wouldn't worry too much about that.

I heard that some people can tell with eggs, but most people say it isn't true. I myself think eggs are just shaped however the hen laid them. The pin-feather testing I have heard about, but I'm not sure how to do it. Sorry.


Best of luck!

 

[BoiseChik]

 

[GitaBooks]

Beautiful hen, great egg colors, and amazing coop!

 

[KayTee]

First of all, 14 eggs is not too many, as long as she is managing to cover them all.

As far as the candling goes, you need a very bright light and a very dark room. I use a small led torch and put a toilet roll cardboard tube over the end of it, and hold the egg on the end of the tube. That way the light is all focused through the egg. As you can see from the image above, there is not a lot to see for the first 10 days or so, unless you are using a professional candler, so 3 days is a bit optimistic. Also, a torch only really works with light shelled eggs - you need proper equipment for darker shelled eggs.

With regard to removing eggs - not all unfertilised eggs will explode on the nest; I have had two or three that never developed or started to develop and then stopped - I left them under the broody and only removed them after the other eggs had hatched (I water candled them to see if there was any movement before opening them to see what had gone wrong). Obviously with 14 eggs under her it makes sense to remove any infertile ones, to give the others the best chance possible, but you need to be very certain that they are indeed infertile; I have had a few eggs that I considered very unlikely candidates, and which hatched perfectly healthy chicks!

Finally - round and pointed eggs for roosters and hens is a complete old wive's tale. Unless the breed is sex linked (ie - different colour males and females on hatching) it's just a fun game of 'try to spot the rooster' by their feathers and behaviour as they develop. It's a game I quite enjoy playing, although I often change my mind two or three times before I can see that a chick is very obviously male or female!

Just relax and let your broody sit it out, but make certain you take her off the nest at least once a day to relieve herself. If she has food and water within reach (water is a very good idea if it is very hot, but food isn't absolutely necessary) then she may be inclined to not leave the nest, and will foul it.

 

[BoiseChik]

Wow this is great information! I was honestly so disaponted when the candling didn't show anytthing, even though I knew it was a bit early. This is my first time hatching eggs and it's pretty exciting! So, I will wait longer before I try to candle again, and I will try a better method. So, if all goes well, I should expect to start seeing some hatching after about 21 days?

 

[KayTee]

You should start to hear 'peeping' in the shell 20-21 days after you put the eggs under her. Not long after the peeping starts you will see a 'pip' where the chick has broken through the shell. Then it will 'zip' by pecking all the way around the shell in a line to break it open. This can take quite a few hours, and sometimes the momma hen will help a chick to 'zip' the shell.

As it's your first time hatching eggs I would suggest that you stay as 'hands off' as possible, especially during the hatching process. It is too easy to think that you are helping a stuck chick out of a shell when in fact you are hurrying the process along too quickly. (I'm speaking from experience here

) Even first time broodies have all the instincts they need to incubate, hatch and raise chicks without human intervention - they are far better at it than we are!

Please let us know how things go - incubating and hatching eggs is just the best thing ever - you will be amazed by how well your girl does it!

 

[BoiseChik]

Update: the hen has been sitting on the eggs for 5 days now and so I tried egg candling again, this time with a bright LED flashlight in a dark room. I candled 10 of the 14 eggs, and did not see anything like veins or a small dark spot, in any of them. I either saw nothing at all, or a light circular patch at the thicker end of the egg, like an air pocket. When I candled a few of them it seemed as if half of the egg (longways) was darker than the other side. I don't know if this makes any sense, but I am thinking these eggs are not going to develop into chicks. Not sure what to think... Input?