Hampshire_Chicken101
Hatching
- Jun 9, 2020
- 9
- 2
- 5
Hello!
Thank you so much in advance to those who reply to my plea!
I placed 8 hatching eggs under a pair of hens (on the 6th June) who have been joint-sitting on a nest, and have a couple of questions.
1. Unfortunately the hens don't appear to be naturally good mothers.. this is their first time sitting but I am not sure if it's coming naturally to them. This afternoon I checked on the eggs when I fed the hens, and unfortunately one egg had cracked and now the remaining 7 are covered in gunk / hay from the egg yolk. I would love some advice here; do you think they could still hatch now that they're not pristine and clean? Should I wash them/not wash them? How easily can bacteria get into them?
2. Occasionally when I check the hens over the day, an egg or two is not 100% under the hen and feels slightly cooler in temperature than the ones fully underneath. This worries me as the hens don't appear to be making any effort to push them back under them. I was wondering how easily embryos die when exposed to the outside air for a period of time, and if some hens just don't have the innate desire to push eggs back under them. Do this what I am describing will be detrimental to how many (if any) hatch?
3. The hens had been sitting for a number of weeks before I placed the 8 eggs under them; do you think they are likely to stay committed to the nest, despite overrunning the 21 day mark in total?
Thank you so much for any answers, I'm hugely grateful! x
Thank you so much in advance to those who reply to my plea!
I placed 8 hatching eggs under a pair of hens (on the 6th June) who have been joint-sitting on a nest, and have a couple of questions.
1. Unfortunately the hens don't appear to be naturally good mothers.. this is their first time sitting but I am not sure if it's coming naturally to them. This afternoon I checked on the eggs when I fed the hens, and unfortunately one egg had cracked and now the remaining 7 are covered in gunk / hay from the egg yolk. I would love some advice here; do you think they could still hatch now that they're not pristine and clean? Should I wash them/not wash them? How easily can bacteria get into them?
2. Occasionally when I check the hens over the day, an egg or two is not 100% under the hen and feels slightly cooler in temperature than the ones fully underneath. This worries me as the hens don't appear to be making any effort to push them back under them. I was wondering how easily embryos die when exposed to the outside air for a period of time, and if some hens just don't have the innate desire to push eggs back under them. Do this what I am describing will be detrimental to how many (if any) hatch?
3. The hens had been sitting for a number of weeks before I placed the 8 eggs under them; do you think they are likely to stay committed to the nest, despite overrunning the 21 day mark in total?
Thank you so much for any answers, I'm hugely grateful! x