fertilized eggs

[thewhylds]

I had a rooter with my girl for two days....he did his thing, through out the next week they only laid 11 eggs (I have 5 girls) the temperature is really hot here, Im in phoenix....so its been about 100-110....my girls are not sitting on their eggs, so I'm wondering if they are incubating or whatever just fine because the temperature is so high....or if after a week they are just infertile.....How long till eggs hatch....and why have they stopped lying????I'm pretty new so anything helps...thanks ya'll

 

[BantamFan4Life]

 

[drumstick diva]

I would think the high temps have a lot to do with lowered egg production. Most breeds have no inclination to brood(hatch) eggs so you would need an incubator to have chicks.

One of the Broodiest breeds of chicken are Silkies. Many people have them just for that reason. They tend to go "broody" fairly often and when they do so will try to hatch, rocks, golf balls or even nothing at all. People usually slip fertile eggs under their broody silkie and she will continue to sit and hatch them.

 

[MalMom]

Happy Houdan, it won't let me send you a private message. What kind of chicken is in your picture? OMG! Sooooo cute!

 

[thewhylds]

do I need to buy special things to incubate th eggs?

 

[sumi]

Welcome to BYC

If you want some chicks you can either wait for one of your hens to go broody or incubate the eggs yourself. You will need an incubator first of all and a hygrometer and thermometer to monitor temperature and humidity (most incubators comes with at least a thermometer). You can buy an incubator or build yourself one. All about hatching, choosing an incubator etc here:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-101

If your rooster's done his duties the eggs your hens are laying should be fertile, but it's not a guarantee, some hens will not take kindly to the rooster's attention and may expel it's sperm after mating, or the rooster may need to practice a bit first, especially if it's a young one. You can check for fertility by cracking a few random eggs and looking for the little "bullseye" on the yolk. If most or all the eggs you check are fertile chances are the ones you didn't check will be too. Pics of that here:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/16008/how-to-tell-a-fertile-vs-infertile-egg-pictures

The high temperatures is most likely the cause of the hens not laying and I suspect adding the rooster to the flock may have played a part too. Little things like adding or removing flock members shifts the flock dynamics and it can cause stress which in turn can cause the hens to stop laying for awhile. Hopefully the weather will improve soon and your hens' egg production will pick up a bit!

 

[redsoxs]

Howdy from Kansas, thewylds, and

! Great to have you with us! Best of luck to you and your hatching efforts!

 

[Mr MKK FARMS]

Welcome to BYC! Glad you joined us!

 

[cheeseandfoody]

hi, I have noticed my rooster trying to mate with one of the hens so is this egg fertile or not.