Ok,heres a mystery.
My marans hen, Izzy, went broody Oct 28.
Moved her to a separate pen in a separate building on Nov 2.
Swapped out golfballs for eggs on Nov 4.
She hatched out her clutch and raised them until xmas day when I found an egg in her pen!!!! This egg was paler brown and smaller than normal. (her chicks were 4 weeks, 2days old).
I collected another egg from her today, it was back to being her normal dark colour....so infact, I collected 2 marans eggs from that pen- one from another marans (Ebony)who has been in the clean out pen for 2.5 weeks already. I couldn't tell who's egg was who's... so I thought I would crack them open to see if Ebony was clear yet.... I assumed the broody hen's egg would be NON fertile, since it had been 8 weeks.......but both looked fertile!! So I got the paler egg she laid in her broody pen and it was fertile too! How is this possible?
My marans hen, Izzy, went broody Oct 28.
Moved her to a separate pen in a separate building on Nov 2.
Swapped out golfballs for eggs on Nov 4.
She hatched out her clutch and raised them until xmas day when I found an egg in her pen!!!! This egg was paler brown and smaller than normal. (her chicks were 4 weeks, 2days old).
I collected another egg from her today, it was back to being her normal dark colour....so infact, I collected 2 marans eggs from that pen- one from another marans (Ebony)who has been in the clean out pen for 2.5 weeks already. I couldn't tell who's egg was who's... so I thought I would crack them open to see if Ebony was clear yet.... I assumed the broody hen's egg would be NON fertile, since it had been 8 weeks.......but both looked fertile!! So I got the paler egg she laid in her broody pen and it was fertile too! How is this possible?