First time hatching with a broody

[sbfarmer3]

Our broody was due to hatch her clutch Monday and the first chick appeared right on due date. None of other nine eggs have hatched. Are we passed the window of hope? What can we troubleshoot for next time? Thanks!

 

[Ridgerunner]

This is set up for people using incubators but maybe you can get something out of it. You’ll need to gently open the eggs and see what is inside, the stage of development.

http://msucares.com/poultry/reproductions/trouble.html

Generally if the egg did not develop at all or stopped developing in the first week, it had something to do with what happened before incubation started. It could be fertility, but it also could be how or how long you stored them or health and nutrition of the parent flock.

If it stopped in the last week, it probably had something to do with the incubation itself. In an incubator that would be heat, humidity, or turning. I’m not sure what that would be under a broody.

There are a lot of things that can affect when am egg actually hatches; genetics, humidity, how and how long they are stored, or just basic differences in each egg. A really big one is heat. If the average incubating temperature is too warm, they can be early. If it is a bit cool, they can be late. I’ve had eggs hatch a full two day early in my incubator and under a broody. These were pretty full hatches where all the eggs that were going to hatch did early. I’ve also had them hatch right on time. Most of my hatches are over within 24 hours but I’ve had hatches in my incubator take over 48 hours. In my last hatch in an incubator one single lonely chick hatched a full 24 hours before any other egg even pipped, then the rest hatched in about a 12 hour period. My eggs have never really been late but some people report that under a broody the hatch was over three days late. There is a lot of potential variety in hatch time. It can get pretty stressful.

I probably should mention too that many people count the days wrong. In theory, an egg needs 21 days of development to hatch. It does not have a day’s worth of development 2 hours after you start incubation. It takes 24 hours for it to get that first day’s worth of development. An easy way to check your counting is that it should hatch on the day of the week you started them. If you started them on a Monday, in theory they should hatch on a Monday. Of course, that’s just theory. Reality is sometimes different.

A couple of possible problems. Did you start them all at the same time? If another hen laid in her nest after incubation started, they will not have had time to develop. That happens a lot on this forum.

Hens and eggs come in various sizes. A bantam might have trouble covering 10 regular sized eggs. Could the hen cover all the eggs at the same time? If she can’t you probably won’t get a good hatch.

In an incubator I’d say you still have a chance, though not a great one. Under a broody your window is rapidly closing. She will have to take that one chick off the nest to find it food and water pretty soon. When that time comes, she will abandon the rest of the eggs. Broodies can hear chicks inside the eggs and will often delay abandoning the nest as long as they can, but practically all will take care of the living hatched chicks instead of waiting on the unhatched eggs if forced to make a decision.

You can do the float test when she abandons them to see if any are still alive. Put the unpippped eggs in a basin of still water and let them settle. At this stage they’ll float. If there is a live chick in there, the egg will wiggle on its own. If you don’t have an incubator you could try to rig up a place that is about 100 degrees and maybe lay it on a damp cloth to keep the humidity up, but that is extraordinary measures. Personally I don’t do that.

 

[sbfarmer3]

This is quite helpful, thank you for your time.