My two bantam hens are both broody, and have been for a month now, trying to hatch two of my d'Uccle's eggs. The thing is, they've been sitting on these eggs for about a month, too.
I have only these two hens and my family relies on their for their eggs, which they put out an impressive rate of between the two of them. One of my roosters is in with these girls and so they decided they were determined to hatch two eggs, and BOTH of them insist upon being broody for them, even though I'm confident only one of them could handle the job.
What I'm wondering is if these eggs will even hatch!
I don't know the exact date they were laid on, but it was around late May or early June. They were sitting on four eggs, and after a couple of days I decided to bring them in the house and put them in the fridge. My mom said I should have left at least a couple outside because the hens seemed so distressed, so after the eggs were in the fridge for probably 5-10 minutes but no longer than 15, I took two and put them back under the hens. I estimated they would hatch around June 23rd, based on how long they had already been outside. They weren't hot, but weren't super cold either when I took them out of the fridge and put them back outside. A few days later, I went to cook the other two I had brought in and found they had already started to grow (blood vessels in both and an embryo in one), so this leads me to believe the other two were growing.
They've stayed warm under the hens since then, but they've been being sat on for 31 days now, and I'm worried that they're not growing -- whether it was from their short refrigerator trip or not. I've tried candling them but I don't think I have the right light for it, as I'm unable to see anything through the eggs at all. I noticed today while picking them up, as I started to accidentally drop one and caught it, that I felt something shift inside the egg. I gently tipped it again and felt the same thing -- it feels like something hard or semi-hard inside the egg is moving around.
If these eggs aren't going to hatch, I want to take them out and break my hens from being broody because we need eggs to eat! But I'm hesitant to take them because one of these hens was a hate hatcher herself, at around 28 days, if I recall correctly.
What should I do???
And because everyone loves pictures, here are the broody ladies with eggs underneath:
I have only these two hens and my family relies on their for their eggs, which they put out an impressive rate of between the two of them. One of my roosters is in with these girls and so they decided they were determined to hatch two eggs, and BOTH of them insist upon being broody for them, even though I'm confident only one of them could handle the job.
What I'm wondering is if these eggs will even hatch!
I don't know the exact date they were laid on, but it was around late May or early June. They were sitting on four eggs, and after a couple of days I decided to bring them in the house and put them in the fridge. My mom said I should have left at least a couple outside because the hens seemed so distressed, so after the eggs were in the fridge for probably 5-10 minutes but no longer than 15, I took two and put them back under the hens. I estimated they would hatch around June 23rd, based on how long they had already been outside. They weren't hot, but weren't super cold either when I took them out of the fridge and put them back outside. A few days later, I went to cook the other two I had brought in and found they had already started to grow (blood vessels in both and an embryo in one), so this leads me to believe the other two were growing.
They've stayed warm under the hens since then, but they've been being sat on for 31 days now, and I'm worried that they're not growing -- whether it was from their short refrigerator trip or not. I've tried candling them but I don't think I have the right light for it, as I'm unable to see anything through the eggs at all. I noticed today while picking them up, as I started to accidentally drop one and caught it, that I felt something shift inside the egg. I gently tipped it again and felt the same thing -- it feels like something hard or semi-hard inside the egg is moving around.
If these eggs aren't going to hatch, I want to take them out and break my hens from being broody because we need eggs to eat! But I'm hesitant to take them because one of these hens was a hate hatcher herself, at around 28 days, if I recall correctly.
What should I do???
And because everyone loves pictures, here are the broody ladies with eggs underneath:
