- May 26, 2011
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Hello fellow chicken lovers
I'm sorry to burst in so rudely asking for help but I am in a real pickle here and desperate to know what to do for the best - my bantam Primrose was sitting on 9 eggs and usually she never manages to hatch any but this time I candled them and a couple looked like they might have life in them, I was so excited I am sorry to say I foolishly took them away from her the next day because she was sitting in a different nest box (although they were still warm) and because of her previous lack of success at hatching, and I put them in my incubator. They are not her eggs, they were laid by my other hen who is a Rhode Island Red, hatched about 4 years ago in the same incubator. The trouble is I now realise I have no idea how long she has been sitting on them, there are 2 possibly 3 fertile ones, and I am worried because I don't know what stage of development they are at and so I don't know when to stop turning them, ie when they will reach day 18. One of them looks quite well developed, it is just solid darkness when I candle it, with a well defined air sac which seems quite large, I can't detect any movement though but maybe that is because there is no room for the chick to move now? Would it harm the chick if there is one in there and it keeps being "rocked" by the incubator until hatching day? The incubator is an old Brinsea octagon, quite a basic thing I think, it was given to me by a builder who also gave me the rhode island red eggs, there were 8 of them and 6 hatched so it must have been fairly ok. i don't actually turn the eggs myself, the incubator slowly rocks from side to side all the time. If anyone can advise I would be so grateful. I am in Suffolk, England.
I forgot to say the three eggs are at different stages so I know I still need to keep the two less developed ones turning. Does anyone know what would happen if I stopped turning the most developed one (egg 1) now by switching the incubator's rocking motion off and it was at, say, day 15, but kept turning the other two eggs manually?
Many hopeful thanks,
Sarah
I'm sorry to burst in so rudely asking for help but I am in a real pickle here and desperate to know what to do for the best - my bantam Primrose was sitting on 9 eggs and usually she never manages to hatch any but this time I candled them and a couple looked like they might have life in them, I was so excited I am sorry to say I foolishly took them away from her the next day because she was sitting in a different nest box (although they were still warm) and because of her previous lack of success at hatching, and I put them in my incubator. They are not her eggs, they were laid by my other hen who is a Rhode Island Red, hatched about 4 years ago in the same incubator. The trouble is I now realise I have no idea how long she has been sitting on them, there are 2 possibly 3 fertile ones, and I am worried because I don't know what stage of development they are at and so I don't know when to stop turning them, ie when they will reach day 18. One of them looks quite well developed, it is just solid darkness when I candle it, with a well defined air sac which seems quite large, I can't detect any movement though but maybe that is because there is no room for the chick to move now? Would it harm the chick if there is one in there and it keeps being "rocked" by the incubator until hatching day? The incubator is an old Brinsea octagon, quite a basic thing I think, it was given to me by a builder who also gave me the rhode island red eggs, there were 8 of them and 6 hatched so it must have been fairly ok. i don't actually turn the eggs myself, the incubator slowly rocks from side to side all the time. If anyone can advise I would be so grateful. I am in Suffolk, England.
I forgot to say the three eggs are at different stages so I know I still need to keep the two less developed ones turning. Does anyone know what would happen if I stopped turning the most developed one (egg 1) now by switching the incubator's rocking motion off and it was at, say, day 15, but kept turning the other two eggs manually?
Many hopeful thanks,
Sarah
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