None of my eggs are fertile. Should I add more?

[MamaManda]

I made myself a homemade egg candler today and checked the eggs that I got from a neighbor and gave to my broody hen. It looks like a couple have bacterial growth, and the rest show absolutely nothing at Day 6

Poor Butter. All that work for nothing. Here's my question: She's been sitting for about 2 weeks. Is it a bad idea to try to get her new eggs? How long will she sit before giving up? I REALLY want to see her hatch her little brood.

 

[Crazyhenlady]

I've gone the heck this week with somewhat of the same issue. I bought some eggs and checked them on days 6, 7 and 8. Finally I came to terms there were probably nothing in them so I tried cracking them open and I was right! All ROTTEN! I removed all the eggs and just put new ones under her yesterday. Starting all over! I would give it just a couple more days before tossing them because some people say that some eggs take longer to develop. When your sure they're bad they say it's better to remove them because they can contaminate the new eggs. My hen has been sitting for 2 weeks now and is on day 2 of the incubation of the new eggs. Good luck!

 

[Crazyhenlady]

Oh p.s. according to the dates the babies will be born right on or before fourth of july!!!! Poor chicks!

 

[bobbieschicks]

My silkie Topsy sat for two weeks before I finally got her new shipped silkie eggs. I have a silkie roo, but he's not hitting the mark

Then she of course sat for the 20+ days to hatch them. I have another pullet, Smokey, who went broody about a week before Topsy was due to hatch. They are mortal enemies so I had to put a landscape fabric divider between them in the area I wired off for broodies. I gave some of Topsy's eggs to Smokey to hatch. They both hatched their clutches on the same day and now are happily mommas to their broods - although neither will go near the other one without a fight!

Broodies can't tell time - you can extend their sitting or shorten it. All they care about is getting a chick in the end. As long as you make that happen for them - they will be happy.

I made myself a homemade egg candler today and checked the eggs that I got from a neighbor and gave to my broody hen. It looks like a couple have bacterial growth, and the rest show absolutely nothing at Day 6

Poor Butter. All that work for nothing. Here's my question: She's been sitting for about 2 weeks. Is it a bad idea to try to get her new eggs? How long will she sit before giving up? I REALLY want to see her hatch her little brood.

 

[Nicole01]

I had 2-3 very porous looking eggs. One of them took much longer to start, but they are all viable! I almost threw it out, but doubled in size just yesterday and good looking veins. Even the eggs with the extra calcium on the outer shell is doing awesome. I'd wait a few days. My one porous one is two weeks in and I honestly thought it wouldn't take. All I saw was a small yolk darkening until yesterday. It's looking more like the rest, but a little behind. Here's my clutch. My very first hatch too!

 

[MamaManda]

Great looking clutch Nicole01! Looks like you will have a nice variety of babies! When are they due to hatch?

Turns out my homemade candling left much to be desired. On day 18, I went to check on butter and saw that one of her Americauna eggs had pipped! I could hear it peeping, and see movement in the little hole. I was so excited I could hardly leave her alone! I honestly wanted to go lift her off every 20 minutes to check on the egg. I finally had to leave the house so I wouldn't bother her too much, and after one last peek, decided to leave her til morning. The next morning I ran out to check on her, and she had an ADORABLE little dark gray fluffy baby, and another pipped egg! The second little baby was out within a few hours and was still quite wet when I went to check. Here she is with her one day olds!

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And here is her little Barred Rock/Americauna having his first drink of water. It was amazing to watch Butter teach her chicks how to drink out of the waterer.



I ended up trying to add a few babies to her little brood to give to a friend, but as it turns out, the only one of 4 that she would accept was this little yellow Salmon Faverolle chick.
More on that on my Backyard Beauties page!

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I'm so entertained by these chicks and the way my hen 'talks' to them and teaches them.
She's showing them how to have a dirt bath (In a tiny spot of bare ground) in this picture - and they were very attentive pupils too!