Help with hatching chicks from eggs

[farm raised]

Hey, my hens just started laying about a week ago and i was thinking it would be a good idea to try some chicks from eggs

. So i asked my nabor if i could borrow his RIR roster before he becomes the family dinner and he said it was no problem

and if i get any extras he wouldnt mind getting a few. but the problem is the weather right now can get into the low 40's and i dont know if i should try incubating the eggs or to just wait for the weather to warm up cus when i go out to check for eggs they can be pretty darn cold

. Any way i would love some input and i hope you can help me here. thanks

 

[PurpleChicken]

What exactly are you asking here?

Is it too cold? No, probably not, but you will need one of your hens to go broody first.

Are you going to use an incubator? If you are then as long as the eggs don't freeze before you put them in the incubator they will be fine.

The rooster will need to be with the hens for a week or more before they start to mate. Also, since your chickens just started laying the eggs may not be very good yet to hatch.

 

[farm raised]

I am using an incubator for the eggs and the second i intruduced the hens to the rooster he started mating with them. And what exatly do you mean by the eggs might now be good to hatch?

 

[barnhelp92]

i think purplechicken meant dont use the eggs you got from the hens before you got the rooster.
an wait a couple days to a week to start collecting eggs to incubate because if you collect
before that they may not be fertalized.

 

[debilorrah]

He is also talking about pullet eggs. They are not usually viable until the hen has been laying eggs for a month. And just because the roo appeared to be doing business, that does not mean that he really is. It is very odd for a rooster to mate without getting to know the hens.

 

[BooBear]

Sounds like he already knows them from living next door. The dirty old boy has probably been flirting with the girls through the fence.

But yeah, give it atleast 3 days if not a week to allow fertility of the eggs.
May want to do a test batch and hang on to the old boy to see whay hatches, then do another batch if you need more.
Hopr you get some healthy babies out of it.

 

[PurpleChicken]

Quote:
Yeah, what Debi said.

Roosters typically need to mate for a few days before producing fertile eggs and the pullet eggs themselves may not be able to become fertile this early on. But heck, go for it anyways. You'll probably get some chicks.

 

[7L Farm]

Quote:
I added a roo & the first thing he did was mate . Isn't that their nature.

 

[gryeyes]

Mounting hens and producing fertile eggs are two different things. It may seem odd, but just because a rooster nails a hen doesn't mean he's fertilizing the eggs. One should check the eggs after about a week to see if the tell-tale "bulls-eye" proves their fertility.

If the majority of the eggs have bulls-eyes, then the rooster is actually doing his job and not just bothering the heck out of the hens.