Chilled Eggs - I'm an idiot

[juliechick]

Give the girl some real eggs!

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

I would give her some an mark them an tell them to leave the marked eggs.

I have only had one egg explode over the years an it was because I was gone to DC for a few days. If you smell the incubator every day you should catch the smell way before they become bombs. But the one that did blow up on me literally did it on me. I was half way to the back door with it an BOOM..... Sounded like a gun... Smelled like a polecat.... Shower, scrub the kitchen then another shower....

 

[Haazegirl]

Yes, our meat farmer was quite literally splattered in the face. They didn't buy the turner so he was turning them by hand one day. He touched it and it exploded all over the place. Then it was like a land mine and the rest of them started to blow!! Maybe it wasn't as bad as I imagine. His wife wrote a book with stories and recipes about their transformation into farmers. She makes everything sound hilarious and amusing. I just wouldn't want it to happen to me! I tell them about how things are going and they just wish me luck!

I will use the marking tip and set some of these under her tomorrow. I've wanted a hen to go broody and raise chicks by themselves so I don't have to. But we've had chickens for 2 years with no motherly intentions! I was starting to wonder how you get them in the mood to brood. But I'm pretty sure there's no way to force it on them!

I'm just thinking that if I put fresh eggs under her she'll get bored since she's been sitting somewhere between 10 and 14 days already. These eggs might be just the thing! I guess the 2 of us got broody at the same time! Now I'm going to see what marking tool is the safest and most noticeable so that my 5 year old thinks twice!

Thanks everyone for the comments, this is all helping me more than you could imagine!

 

[Rozzie]

Quote:
You can just use a Sharpie -- regular magic marker. Actually any brand should work.

 

[newtochick]

I am no expert..but if it was me, I would stick the eggs under her (if she is really broody) when you would normally put them in lockdown! Let her sit them the last 2 days while they hatch and then be a mom...I am not sure I would trust her mid way through to do all the turning.
Good luck!
BTW...I had a day when my 4 yr old turned my bator up to 110 during the summer...I thought for sure she had killed all of the eggs but I still had a 95% hatch rate, eggs are resilient! Just do your best, and hopefully they will be ok!

 

[Haazegirl]

For all those who stuck it out and gave me advice along the way, Thanx! I'm hatching a bunch of chicks today!!

I ended up trading out the wooden eggs on my broody cuckoo maran for 5 or 6 of the real deals a few days ago. I haven't been out there but after chores my husband said she was sitting on 2 little chickies! She even had little accident one day. I went outside to find her sitting on wooden eggs again in the wrong nest box!

I think someone came in and laid an egg in her nest box after she got up to eat. Looks like I'm not the only one who forgets to leave the cover on!

And in the incubator I have one hatched out, and she is stirring up all of the other wobbly eggs! I put them in neat lines so I could see everything in the windows, no such luck. This little peep is all over the place, and another is on it's way out. I'm so excited for when my boys come home and see some more hatch!

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Good deal

 

[OrphanNanny]

How EGGciting!!!....Hoping to try and hatch some next spring

 

[silversage03]

My single developing egg that my broody had diligently been setting was at day 16 when I moved the lower roost to put a dog crate into the coop into which I was going to move Miss Broody so that when the chick hatched it wouldn’t fall from the nest box she had been in for the last couple of weeks (highest one, 4’ off the floor!). Well, I didn’t finish up on Tuesday night and forgot that I had moved that lower roost. When I got home from work on Wednesday, the hen was in a lower box and the egg was cool to the touch!! I was crushed and angry at myself for my stupidity, but I slipped the egg back under her anyway. Last night I set her up in the kennel with 6 fresh eggs and her other egg, but I don’t hold any hope for that one hatching. Thoughts from any of you?

 

[Haazegirl]

I would guess that egg might still hatch. And that she will get bored of sitting before the fresh eggs hatch. Mine were uncovered for at least 10 hours in a cold basement. But chickens sit for the approximate time it takes to hatch eggs, 21 days. I'm not sure how much longer they will sit on unhatched eggs. A few days maybe? A week? IDK. Unless she's one of those crazy brooders that broods constantly. I was lucky that our hen at the time started sitting when we started incubating.