Chicken left eggs - will they still hatch?

[princess layer]

Hello,

I was just wondering if anyone could help me with a hatching question. I've got a pekin sitting on some eggs - we're on day 18 - but for reasons I won't bore you with she became separated from her eggs for an hour and a half this afternoon. She's sitting on them again now but I'm just wondering what the chances are that they will still hatch. I would be very grateful for any advice.

Thanks,

Lucy

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Don't they get off once or twice a day to defecate, eat and drink?
IMO they should be ok.

 

[princess layer]

Thanks. She's been getting off for 20 minutes or so every day but this was quite a bit longer. I've never done this before so am pretty clueless!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

A lot has to do with the ambient temperature at that length of time.

 

[dretd]

Last year my broody got booted off the nest by the big girls and mistakenly got back on the wrong nest. When I got home in the evening the eggs were cold to the touch and I put her back on the correct nest. This happened at least twice. She still hatched out 4 of the eggs.

One of the incubator manufacturers ( brinsea) has a new feature on some of their models that lowers the temp for a period of time to mimic a hen getting off the nest. There was a study that said there was an increased hatch rate when you do this. If you go to their website I know it's buried in there I think under tech notes or incubation notes.

 

[princess layer]

Thanks. It's around 12 degrees c at the moment - does that sound good or bad?!

 

[dretd]

Although that's pretty cold, they were in the nest and have thermal mass so it will take awhile to cool them down. Plus the babies at this stage are growing and metabolizing and produce some heat all by themselves. Keep your fingers crossed and try not to stress out about it!

Plus I totally forgot to say Welcome to BYC!

 

[princess layer]

Thank you - fingers crossed! I am really hoping we will get some chicks, particularly as one of the eggs was laid by another pekin which has since been taken by a fox

 

[princess layer]

Ooooooooooh just looked at the eggs and three of them are cheeping! So excited!

 

[Mommy 2 Wee Ones]