Can we still post on this thread? I brought in a bunch of eggs that my hen abandoned after she had eight little chicks. I have no idea how far along the eggs were. She's been sitting on eggs for a while and other hens keep adding eggs. I don't have an incubator, I might go buy one tomorrow, but I put them in a bin with a non-slip floor, give them a heat lamp and some of those disposable hand warmers. I read that on a thread here. They're in my bathroom with a space heater going and some wet paper towels in their bin.
Having never incubated any eggs before, I've been reading all day. I read about duds exploding and spraying bacteria everywhere. I tried candling, but most of my eggs are laid by copper Marans and the shells are so dark, I can't see a thing. So I tried just tapping and listening for peeping. One is actually peeping! Then I checked to make sure there were no Pips and I did the float test.
Six floated with the tiny bit of the egg showing at the surface. I dried them off and put them back in my fakey incubator. Six sank hard to the bottom so I figured they were duds. But I didn't just throw them away, of course I cracked one open. Inside was a little chick, looking to be about 18 days along, fully feathered, albumin mostly gone, responsive to touch but I don't know if breathing air yet, could still see the big umbilicus and some veins in the rest of the yolk. I don't know enough about opening them at this stage to tell if there was a proper air sac and if everything looked right. I should have taken a picture. I was too busy crying though.
So what gives? Why did the float test give me such inaccurate information? Does the fact that these eggs sink so hard mean that they're just not beyond 22 or so days? Or does it mean they developed maybe without an air sac and they are going to die no matter what? They're in my incubator now but of course I don't want them exploding.
