Hello, new to incubating

[WillyCx]

Hey all I've been meaning to post here in a while, but I had a few birds not laying yet, and they started to lay a bunch recently. Got this incubator over 2 months ago, none of my hens are broody, as I've tried putting good smelling herb where they lay, they will never sit on their eggs, will keep trying that. 4 Hens, 2 female ducks, & 2 roosters. 1 rooster and 1 hen (the easter egger) often mate with the ducks, i don't think there's a chance they can be fertilized, but I have trouble distinguishing the duck eggs/bantam/easter egger, what I think are duck eggs seem smaller than usual cause everyone tells me they are usually large but I think they're just small cause they started laying.
Here's today's pics of my flock & the eggs in here, not enough room for more though maybe all of them are not fertile.
Reason I'm posting is, I don't know when to know they're fertile. I see different things online everywhere, on day 1 you see a white dot inside w the light I have one as you can see, sometimes I see what I think is some yolk moving, i've kept what I thought was fertile for a few weeks, but I don't think my hens are getting fertilized by the roosters, they just want the ducks lol don't have a male duck and don't know what that'll be like.
I hate wasting eggs, wish I knew if I could tell they're fertile day 1 or do I have to wait until day 3 (which they'll be well cooked by then in the incubator, too late for fridge) so I'll have to put them as bait in the nest to attempt to make them broody or something.

 

[SilverBirds]

Welcome to BYC!

Hens will go broody when they want to go broody. There are things you can do to encourage the behavior but you can't force it. If they just recently started laying they may not get the urge to go broody for at least a year. The broody trait has been bred out of many breeds so they may not go broody ever.

It is not possible for the duck eggs to be fertilizer by a rooster. The rooster could potentially injure the ducks so I'd be very careful with them. I believe the rounder egg with the number 13 on it is a duck egg, but not positive. Wwhat are the numbers for?

You can tell if an egg is fertile by two ways. First you can crack one (or multiple) open. If it has a singular white dot (called the blastodisc) it is infertile. If it has a bullseye (blastoderm) it is fertile. This can be done with any of your eggs, whether they were just laid, or came from the fridge, or have been sitting on the counter.

You can also tell if an egg is fertile by incubating it. At around day 5-7 days you can sometimes start to see development (veining and the embryo) by shining a bright light (candling) through the egg. Day 10-12 is when you would know for sure if you have any babies growing. Pictures of day by day development here and here.

How long and how have you stored the eggs? Viability of the egg decrease a lot after 7 days. The longer they sit the less likely they are to hatch. I wouldn't keep any eggs for over 12-14 days.

I Once the eggs are in the incubator I wouldn't put any back in the nest. As you said, they'd be WELL cooked so they are unfit to eat and if left out in a nest with start to rot fast (and possibly explode). You're better off just chucking them. If you need egg decoys, golf balls, easter eggs, and egg shaped rocks all work very well.

I'd also read this article here. Let me know if you have any questions. I wish you luck on your hatching journey!


Also, I think I'm seeing more then two roosters. Could you post some more pictures of them?

 

[WillyCx]

Welcome to BYC!

Hens will go broody when they want to go broody. There are things you can do to encourage the behavior but you can't force it. If they just recently started laying they may not get the urge to go broody for at least a year. The broody trait has been bred out of many breeds so they may not go broody ever.

It is not possible for the duck eggs to be fertilizer by a rooster. The rooster could potentially injure the ducks so I'd be very careful with them. I believe the rounder egg with the number 13 on it is a duck egg, but not positive. Wwhat are the numbers for?

You can tell if an egg is fertile by two ways. First you can crack one (or multiple) open. If it has a singular white dot (called the blastodisc) it is infertile. If it has a bullseye (blastoderm) it is fertile. This can be done with any of your eggs, whether they were just laid, or came from the fridge, or have been sitting on the counter.
View attachment 3223447
View attachment 3223448

You can also tell if an egg is fertile by incubating it. At around day 5-7 days you can sometimes start to see development (veining and the embryo) by shining a bright light (candling) through the egg. Day 10-12 is when you would know for sure if you have any babies growing. Pictures of day by day development here and here.

How long and how have you stored the eggs? Viability of the egg decrease a lot after 7 days. The longer they sit the less likely they are to hatch. I wouldn't keep any eggs for over 12-14 days.

I Once the eggs are in the incubator I wouldn't put any back in the nest. As you said, they'd be WELL cooked so they are unfit to eat and if left out in a nest with start to rot fast (and possibly explode). You're better off just chucking them. If you need egg decoys, golf balls, easter eggs, and egg shaped rocks all work very well.

I'd also read this article here. Let me know if you have any questions. I wish you luck on your hatching journey!


Also, I think I'm seeing more then two roosters. Could you post some more pictures of them?

thanks the numbers are the dates, heard it's good to date them to know when 21 days are up in case they're fertilized, just didn't put the month.
Yeah it's a crazy rooster the white one, they learned weird behaviors starting w him, the ducks will mate w each other as well and i'm pretty sure they're female.
I forgot to mention, my mom said she broke 1 egg accidentally and cooked 1 from fridge and both had blood, I didn't see for myself.
I would rather tell if they're fertile before I put them in the fridge or incubator but I guess I can't do neither they are laying fertile eggs I suppose, I just don't see the hens mating so dunno, now that the incubator is full, i'll have to take out the for sure infertile, and put in what i'm sure are fertile, or I could just collect them all in the fridge, cause I don't think my roosters are into the hens.
more than 2 is possible, these recently matured as there started being more eggs than the white & brown very bottom in the pic.
Torchic the lil bantam, he/she has been crowing a lot recently, there have been a couple little eggs could be from it, we thought they could be hens cause their combs are a bit small, but it's possible the bantam may be a rooster cause it acts like one sometimes.
and blondie is the big one, I doubt she's a rooster

 

[SilverBirds]

thanks the numbers are the dates, heard it's good to date them to know when 21 days are up in case they're fertilized, just didn't put the month.
Yeah it's a crazy rooster the white one, they learned weird behaviors starting w him, the ducks will mate w each other as well and i'm pretty sure they're female.
I forgot to mention, my mom said she broke 1 egg accidentally and cooked 1 from fridge and both had blood, I didn't see for myself.
I would rather tell if they're fertile before I put them in the fridge or incubator but I guess I can't do neither they are laying fertile eggs I suppose, I just don't see the hens mating so dunno, now that the incubator is full, i'll have to take out the for sure infertile, and put in what i'm sure are fertile, or I could just collect them all in the fridge, cause I don't think my roosters are into the hens.
more than 2 is possible, these recently matured as there started being more eggs than the white & brown very bottom in the pic.
Torchic the lil bantam, he/she has been crowing a lot recently, there have been a couple little eggs could be from it, we thought they could be hens cause their combs are a bit small, but it's possible the bantam may be a rooster cause it acts like one sometimes.
and blondie is the big one, I doubt she's a rooster

All three of those are roosters Your frizzled cochin looks like a roo too. The only two hens I'm seeing are the white and brown next to each other in the first pic. Do either have your ducks have curly tail feathers? Curly feathers mean you have a drake.

Unless you crack an egg open before hand, you won't know if it's fertile until they've started incubating. Next time you crack an egg to cook you can look for the bullseye.

Have you started incubating your eggs yet then? Once you have started incubating do NOT add any or replace any of the infertile eggs with more eggs. Adding more eggs leads to staggered hatches which makes it very difficult during lockdown.