Bit off more than we could chew

[Ahalestorm]

Hi! We are barely into our first experience raising/keeping chickens and we've already been thrown a curve ball. We live in the Sacramento valley in California and started with one very beautiful jersey giant roo who was given to us. Shortly after his arrival, we were given 2 hens (absolutely no idea what breed) to keep our roo company. Everything was well till our landlord (who lives just across the field from us) asked that we get rid of the roo because of the crowing . Our 6 year old daughter was so sad about the rooster so we opted to pick up 6 chicks from tractor supply just before they ran out and raising these babies has been such a delight!

We got rid of the roo and picked up the chicks in the last week of April. About 2 1/2 weeks ago my husband was out closing up the coop for the evening when he noticed one of our two hens was missing. To make a long story short, we ended up finding her and 14 eggs under a tool cart. Turns out 4 of the 14 were fertile! I returned the 4 developing eggs to her nest in hopes that something might come of them. I candled them a week ago and one had a blood ring clearly visible so I got rid of it but the other three were still good as far as I could tell. My husband had me convinced that there was no way these embryos could still be alive because they're a month and a half old so pulled them from the nest and ignorantly cracked into one to see what the dead embryo looked like. After I gently removed the chick from the egg, I was horrified to see it actually start moving!! I felt terrible!!! Needless to say, I quickly returned the other two to the nest hoping it wasn't too late. That was 4 days ago. Here is a picture of the embryo. Maybe someone can tell how far along it was and how I can verify the other too might still be alive since there has been no signs of hatching that I can tell. Any advise would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[JaeG]

Everybody makes mistakes. There are lots of people on here who have dropped eggs or done the wrong thing so don't feel too bad. You learn from your mistakes. Fingers crossed the other two eggs hatch for you (and they turn out to be girls)!

 

[Ahalestorm]

Here they are

 

[JaeG]

That's fantastic! Enjoy them. Take lots of photos - they do grow so fast. And fingers crossed they are girls!

 

[JaeG]

So cute!

 

[Ahalestorm]

Last night was a success!! Our mama hen and her two little peeps are secure and doing very well! Thank you Wickedchicken6 and JaeG for your valuable input!! So thankful for BYC! What an incredible resource!!

 

[Wickedchicken6]

That is almost a fully developed chick. I hope this isn't too graphic of a chart to post.

Going by this chart, I'd guess 17-18 days old approximately. There is still a fair bit of yoke to be absorbed, but the chick itself is proportionally formed.

Sorry about the picture delay...I was experiencing technical difficulties.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

I also want to say that I'm sorry to hear about having to get rid of your rooster and about your chick.

In regards to the eggs being fertile...a rooster's sperm can remain viable for up to a month inside a hen...so the hen's eggs can still be fertile in that amount of time. Usually 2-3 weeks is a more common amount of time for eggs to be produced and still be fertile, but breeders wait 1 month before exposing the hen to a new rooster to ensure the sperm from the original rooster is no longer viable and fertilizing the eggs.

A hen will lay a clutch of eggs, which may take up to 10 days to 2 weeks depending on the breed. Those eggs stay viable for that amount of time. Eggs being incubated in an incubator are usually set by 10 -14 days for the best hatching rate. My first attempt at hatching was to try to preserve the genetics of my predated hens. The three eggs I managed to hatch were approximately 4 weeks by the time I set them. They had sat in the barn for two weeks because I had hoped some of the hens would set and approximately two weeks before I made an incubator. So it is entirely possible in your time frame to be getting eggs almost ready to hatch.

You can candle the eggs. That means using a flashlight and holding it to the developing egg in the dark and looking for live eggs. At this point you should see that the eggs are mostly filled with chick, you "may" see veins and you'll see the air cell at the fat end of the egg.

The visual appearance of the size of air cell that should be showing for the related days.

Above is an egg with a flashlight being held from the top to illuminate inside. It shows the air cell and veins (although veins won't be as visible) This egg is not as far along as yours.

Here's an egg where the embryo's died.

I use a dollar store led flashlight. I hope this gives a bit of an idea of what you may see.

 

[Ahalestorm]

Ok....wow that long after the roo has been with her then? So this peaks my curiousity about the other 10 eggs she was sitting on before I pulled them. I candled all 14 eggs originally and left 4 because they clearly were developing inside. I put the rest in the fridge in case I learned we could still eat them. My question now is: could these eggs still be incubated and quite possibly hatched?

 

[Ahalestorm]

Ok....wow that long after the roo has been with her then? So this peaks my curiousity about the other 10 eggs she was sitting on before I pulled them. I candled all 14 eggs originally and left 4 because they clearly were developing inside. I put the rest in the fridge in case I learned we could still eat them. My question now is: could these eggs still be incubated and quite possibly hatched?

Oh and the other two look exactly like they should when I candled them just before I opened the one: almost all chick with a perfect air pocket on the big end. Is it ok to move them with the hen into her own enclosure then since they haven't hatched yet? I'm really going to have to improvise since our 6 almost fully grown chicks occupy half of the coop which is divided off from where my hens are. Then should I leave the chicks for momma hen to raise or should I put them in a brooder and do myself? lol I'm so unprepared for this!