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What do I do in this situation???

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buffbeauty

buffbeauty

Songster
9 Years
May 13, 2010
1,729
6
149
Central Arkansas
OK, first let me preface this by saying:

#1 - I was not crazy about this idea in the first place. Not sure about risk of disease spread, but figured it was less risky than with grown birds.
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#2 - this kid is a good kid with horrible, worthless, verbally abusive parents and stands a reasonable chance of turning into a less than productive member of sociwty based on his raising, but he is a trying to be a good kid and with positive influence from me and another neighbor maybe he wont turn into a complete loser. SO I feel like that I can reasonably justify helping him out and encouraging a positive hobby.
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OK enough blabber
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On my way to work last night my best friend and neighbor called and said that Cody had called her and said that he had a hen that has been sitting on some eggs for he thinks "about a week" and she died. And he wanted to know if he could put his eggs in my incubator. So I said yes. So know my dilemma is when to put them in lockdown. I candled them and I would say that they are fairly similar to my 14 day eggs that I have going right now. Definitely not a whole week off. I dont think??? So should I just put them in lockdown with my eggs or a day or two early?? Ive done a staggered hatch so theyll have to go into lockdown in the same bator as mine because I have some that are less than one week in the one bator now and the other is my hatcher. What do ya'll think. I wish I could hatch them in a whole separate bator to limit exposure if there is a risk of anything. I'm going to talk to him today and find out a little more info, maybe a more definite date and maybe why hen died?? So what to do?
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I think you've done a lovely thing. Saving a child's life--which is what you are doing--outweighs the potential risk of disease in the incubator.

And I think the risk is VERY low. Many people hatch eggs instead of buying chicks specifically because they are far less likely to bring disease into the flock.

Personally, I would keep candling and then put them in lockdown when they are pushing hard on the membrane and/or internally pipped.

Good luck, both with the eggs and with the child.
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Thanks you two! Update..... Cody says he noticed the hen was setting about 1.5-2 weeks ago but not sure and he just found the hen dead on the nest. So maybe just got too hot and not getting up and drinking? I candles again and I think they may be a couple days younger than my 14 day eggs. Bottom of egg not quite as full but close. So any other input on lockdown?
 
I wanna share something here ..

I usually do 1 full capacity batch .. total lockdown on 18th .. and I get 80%+ hatch rate

My cousin on the other hand .. getting eggs from same source .. and from being lazy ..
he just puts the eggs in auto-turning incubator .. and never stop turning .. until he pulls the plug ..
he gets the same hatch rate as well

so I don't really know how much chicks will be effected if the eggs were turned in the last 3 days ..
from what I just told you .. it does not seem to matter
 
hens do turn their eggs, a fair few times a day. they use their beak and kind of roll the egg over
 
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Well, I've hatched six batches with some pretty big ones...like 14 out of 16 under a little Banty. And I've spent hours out in my chair in the pen just watching everyone. All of them just sit there absolutely still except when they get off the nest to eat and poo and drink which is never more than twice a day unless they are doing it in the middle of the night which I don't think they do. When they get back on the nest....they carefully step in, turn to the direction they want to face, and settle down on the eggs. As for moving them all I've ever seen them do is tuck a few closer to them under their breast and sort of wiggle their back end before they sit.

And another thing I wonder...hen's don't perspire so the humidity is what it is. I have one sitting right now and it is raining. I know the humidity for those eggs which she has been sitting on less than a week is close to 100%.
 
I don't know about anyone else's hens, but I'm sure mine is turning hers because they are marked with a date and an X to make them clearly identifiable from the fresh eggs other hens lay in there each morning. When I lift her off the nest to collect the fresh eggs, the others are often on a different side from the last time I examined. I don't actually see her turn them, but then I don't really watch.

As for humidity--I had three eggs under her when we had a bunch of rain several days in a row. One of them rotted during the rain and she kicked it out. I added six more after the rain stopped. Both of the other eggs that went through all that rain ended up rotting (I checked them after she kicked them out and they were PUTRID). So ducks can have eggs fail from high humidity, or wetness, or whatever too.

That's not to say that I think we have to do everything that's suggested. I think certain practices yield a higher rate of hatching than others, but in the scheme of things, most eggs will hatch most of the time as long as basic needs are met.

As for turning at the end, I never thought it would confuse them or anything, just that you don't want the little ones getting caught in the machinery after they hatch. I take mine out of the turner after they poke their bills through the internal membrane. I do it this way because I've had hatches that occurred two days early, and hatches that occurred two days late, and I don't like to have them in lockdown for a whole week in the case of late hatches, so I wait until they're close to pipping. My hatches are usually between 85-95%.

It's amazing and wonderful how many different hatching practices there are in the world and how often they work very well. I love to hear about other practices (like leaving them in the auto-turner).

Good luck with the babies, and I look forward to hearing how the hatch goes.
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