eggs hatching past 21 days

[juleeque]

Hello, I am still a new bee, but my hen went broody and hatched some eggs. But she stayed on nest. From what I've read here, some have dismissed eggs past 21 days as duds....well she kept sitting, so I let her....she ended up hatching eggs (which I was absolutely positive of the dates) around 28-30 days. They are normal healthy young'ins. So, if she was on and off the nest, (she would get off the nest to go to the bathroom and stretch, I had her food and water right there with her, why would it take so long to hatch?? I did notice that the egg & membrane was dry (I just learned that I could/should have wrapped them with a damp paper towel) and towards the end they needed help getting out of shell. But they did survive.
Should I let eggs go past 21 days?
If so, do they become mentally or developmentally delayed?
(I do have one Ameraucana that seems slow)
Also, a side question, is there any way to hatch eggs (either with a hen or incubator) that would help you have more hens than roos?
(I saw something on net, but not sure if it is a hoax)
Thank you for your kind help....
julie

 

[Outpost JWB]

Could be temperature issue. Possibly she kicked out the original eggs and had the other hens replace them with viable eggs. Also 21 days is just a baseline. I've had certain breeds will not hatch out until 25 days. Did you candle them to see airspace progress? I would do that next time.

 

[cavemanrich]

Yes there are plenty of hoaxes out there. There is a process I read about developed in some University in Germany , that was able to determine if an egg was going to become a pullet or a cockerel. It tested the egg at day 5 or 7 or something close to it. If it was a cockerel, they destroyed the egg. You can call it chicken abortion. They claimed that the chicken felt no pain at that stage. You make up your own mind.
Personally I feel that all chickens should be hatched. Raise them to whatever stage and then..... Keep the hens for eggs, Eat the roosters. If you don't want to eat the roos, then opt for sexed chicks from the hatcheries and go that route.
I don't think the German University method is easily available to common backyard chicken keepers.
As to the chickens being hatched out later then 21 days. Consider this..... It is your hen and not incubator doing the job. The start of the egg can be affected when the warmth of the hens body starts the process. With many eggs under the hen, some eggs receive warmth at different intervals.
As to the concern that some chickens will arrive developmentally challenged. There is nothing that you are able to do about that except. culling. Many that are like that will not grow to maturity and die early on.

These are REALITIES OF LIFE.

WISHING YOU BEST.

 

[juleeque]

thx...those are some issues that I will look into.