Fertilized eggs

[LandonA]

Hello,

This is only my second year raising dual purpose chickens. With work I'm not able to get out the the hen house as frequently as I would like to transfer freshly laid eggs. My question is how many hours/days are chicken eggs viable if they have sat out at 33-34 degrees? We have two hens brooding at the moment each sitting on three eggs. We have 8 other hens that are still laying and I would like to add more eggs to the ones currently under the brooders. Last year we had great success with our hatching only one egg did not hatch out of 15. But last year we were less busy so were able to check the hen house every hour for fresh eggs so they never got cold.

Thanks Landon

 

[SunHwaKwon]

Its not a good idea to keep adding more eggs under the broodies. She isn't going to hang out on them to wait for the later ones to hatch; she will abandon the eggs in order to take care of the ones that have hatched after 2-3 days. So, if the hens have been sitting on their current eggs for longer than 1-2 days I would not add more because they will likely just end up wasted eggs and dead unhatched chicks.

 

[LandonA]

Hello!

It was only the next day that we added eggs. We did this last year and all the eggs hatched except one and it was not fertile. We have one hen that will stay on the nest until all the eggs hatch or at least she did this last year. It wasn't until we took the unhatched egg out from under her did she get off the nest and exercise the chicks. Thank you for the advise.

Landon

 

[rebrascora]

In a natural environment, when a hen starts to go broody she will lay an egg a day into a nest until she has a clutch of what she considers the right size, (usually 10-16) and then she will stop laying and start the incubation process, so the oldest egg in her nest could be 16 or more days old and sat in the nest day and night exposed to whatever temperatures the climate affords during that time. Once the hen starts to incubate the eggs, then that is when the clock starts ticking for the 21 days to hatch. This way, all the eggs hatch within about 24hrs of each other and the hen can leave the nest with the chicks and start caring for them. If egg get added to the nest at intervals after she has started incubating them (by other hens or humans) then that causes a staggered hatch. A day or two is usually OK as the chicks that hatch first can live up to 72 hours on their yolk before needing food, but after that time the hen has to make the decision to look after the chicks that have hatched or stick with the eggs that have not. Of course, you can place food and water in/near the nest so that the hen can look after the chicks and continue to incubate any late eggs but more than a few days and it can lead to problems.

If both your hens started setting at the same time, you could move all the eggs over to one of them and give the other broody some fresher eggs. This would prevent having a significantly staggered hatch. If they are in communal nest boxes, then marking the eggs and removing any that are subsequently laid by other hens on a daily basis is important.

I hope that clarifies the situation. Basically, eggs getting cold before being placed under a broody to incubate are not a problem as naturally they could sit in a nest unheated for up to a couple of weeks, day and night before, the hen starts to brood them.

Regards

Barbara

 

[LandonA]

There was only a 24 hour span between the first few eggs and the the balance of them, so we should be okay. For next year I will collect the the eggs a keep them separated until I we have the numbers we want, then put them under the hens. I have dated the eggs and have been removing any that the other hen lay in the nests. You would think that with there being 6 nesting boxes that the other hens would use them but no they have to use the ones that the hens are sitting on. Thank you for the info it was very helpful and has set my mind at ease.

Thanks Landon