Anyone try to hatch babies from 5 month old pullets' eggs?

[catnipchickens]

Just as an experiment, I put 3 eggs from 5 month old standard breed pullets under a 1 year old setting hen. I haven't candled these yet, but I've confirmed eggs from this bunch of youngsters are being fertilized. Now the eggs are not the same size as a full sized hen's would be, so I was curious to know if anyone has tried to hatch chicks from a hen's first month of egg laying. Again, this was simply to see if we could get any babies at all, but I was curious to see if anyone else has tried. Thanks for any input.


Dee






Raising Speckled Sussex, D'Uccles, and Silkies

 

[mstricer]

I have done it. Sometimes though, they don't hatch because the chick is to big to turn around in the egg. Good luck.

 

[catnipchickens]

Thank you for your feedback. I appreciate it. We still have about 9 days to go, but we're hoping for at least 1 SS to hatch. Thanks again.


Dee

Raising MFDU's, SS's, & Silkies

 

[yo burrill]

You will end up with smaller adults from setting smaller eggs. That is why most breeders use eggs from full grown adults and only keep the largest egg layers, So that the chicks from these eggs will be large egg layers too.

 

[catnipchickens]

You will end up with smaller adults from setting smaller eggs. That is why most breeders use eggs from full grown adults and only keep the largest egg layers, So that the chicks from these eggs will be large egg layers too.

Thank you for your help with this and your opinion. Its greatly appreciated.

 

[mstricer]

I hatched D'Uccle pullet eggs, I saw no difference in the size eggs. (Well some are like robin eggs don't hatch those) I think you will have a good hatch. Fingers crossed.

 

[Hedgfun]

we got one hatch out of 6 eggs. from a 6 month old pullet. Not brilliant, but 1 better than none.

 

[catnipchickens]

Well, just to update those interested we got 1 out of 3 SS eggs to hatch. 'Suzie' as I call him/her had a bit of a rough start and was rejected by momma, but I've been handraising him/her since she hatched and she's doing much better. Probably won't try this again, but it was interesting to see.

UPDATE: Suzie had been reintroduced to momma (Loofa the blue Silkie) 2 days ago (9/4) and is doing well. She's a tad bit bigger than the 2 bantam babies we have and smaller than the 1-2 week old SS chicks, but at least she's made it.