Broody!?

[raymondjames]

I know that many people use a broody hen to incubate duck eggs. But don't the chickens do the 21-day cycle and stop turning on day 18? I hear duck eggs should stop turning on day 25 (after the end of chicken cycle) and hatch day 28 (or something). Do they take the egg out before the hen stops turning? Or does the hen know it's not a chicken egg and magically figure out the hatch cycle? Just a bit confused...

 

[reneemellor]

My broody hen never stopped moving her eggs around. Just let her do her thing, that's the best thing about a broody hen, she does all the work.

 

[gryeyes]

We humans turn the eggs we artificially incubate. Hens don't use our cycle of turning, they just move the eggs around, making the outside ones inside and warmer, and moving eggs directly under themselves out to the edges of their bodies. When they sense the movement in the eggs, they sit tight and don't leave the nest as much.... So if the eggs mature more slowly, they are naturally responding to what they hear and feel.

Lockdown is only for incubators.

We are just trying to replicate what hens do naturally. So the "average" of all of history's eggs is what we're doing. 21 days is the average time for a chicken egg to hatch, but I've had some hatch on day 19, and some as late as day 25.

Hope that explains it.

 

[raymondjames]

thanks... maybe as you could guess i dont have a broody (or in fact, a chicken over the age of 3 weeks

)

 

[raymondjames]

So does that mean it doesn't hurt to turn them after "lockdown" (that would help me out SOO much)

 

[gryeyes]

Noop. If you are incubating eggs in an artificial incubator, you shouldn't turn them during lockdown. The chick inside needs to orient itself to the correct position for hatching.