Hidden nest located, now what . . .

[redinator]

Now I have a whole new batch of questions.

The hidden nest was under the landing to my back steps. The only reason I decided to look there is the two cockerels got a bit flustered when I was moving stuff around in the area. The chosen spot wouldn't be a problem if they didn't decide to tuck the nest wayyyy up under the lowest step, lol. I have to crawl on my stomach to get to the eggs .

I'm planning to tuck a few pavers under the lowest steps to push the nest forward a bit to make them easier to reach. As a peace offering I'll put fresh cut grass and leaves under there to make it more comfortable. I'll let y'all know how these negotiations go, lol.

Now for some assumptions and questions:

As far as I know, only one of my 20 week old pullets is laying, I witnessed it today on a camera I set up when I found the nest spot. I found, what I assumed to be, the first egg on the floor of the run 6 days ago. I assumed she was laying every other day since I only found 3 eggs in the run over those 6 days. The nest spot had 3 eggs, for a total of 6 eggs.

How do I check if the eggs are suitable for consumption? Should I toss the lot and start fresh? They could be older than 6 days, especially if she's laying every other day.

What are the odds that eggs from a 20 week old pullet would be fertile/viable for hatching? I have seen one of the boys mount her a few times over the last two weeks. I wouldn't try to hatch these since I don't know how old they are, but . . . some chicks sure would be nice, lol.

 

[Perris]

How do I check if the eggs are suitable for consumption? Should I toss the lot and start fresh? They could be older than 6 days, especially if she's laying every other day.

The traditional method is to place a suspect egg into a glass of water. The higher it floats the older it is. A freshly laid egg will sink quickly. A very old egg will bob on the surface.

Only freshness is indicated by this method; it may still be good to eat even if it bobs on the surface, but it would be wise to break it into a separate container first, to check the smell and appearance of the contents before consumption. If in doubt, don't eat it.

What are the odds that eggs from a 20 week old pullet would be fertile/viable for hatching? I have seen one of the boys mount her a few times over the last two weeks. I wouldn't try to hatch these since I don't know how old they are, but . . . some chicks sure would be nice, lol

Young stock may be capable of breeding but fwiw traditional wisdom favours using eggs from properly mature pullets and cockerels, or fully matured hens and roos, rather than those just starting up. I think they mean at least using only those who you know are consistent and reliable layers of well formed eggs with well formed contents.

 

[50-45-1]

The eggs would probably be fertle, and probably be hatchable. One mating makes all eggs by that hen fertile for a month or more. A hen wiil hide a nest, take several days to fill the nest with the desired amount of eggs. Then the day she begins to brood, all the eggs start developing the same day. (Day 1 for everybody).
The eggs would likely be also edible.
If you don't have a broody or an Incubator. I would remove the nest. Block it somehow so the hen can no longer lay eggs there, and hopefully she goes back to laying In The coop.

 

[redinator]

The traditional method is to place a suspect egg into a glass of water. The higher it floats the older it is. A freshly laid egg will sink quickly. A very old egg will bob on the surface.

Only freshness is indicated by this method; it may still be good to eat even if it bobs on the surface, but it would be wise to break it into a separate container first, to check the smell and appearance of the contents before consumption. If in doubt, don't eat it.

Young stock may be capable of breeding but fwiw traditional wisdom favours using eggs from properly mature pullets and cockerels, or fully matured hens and roos, rather than those just starting up. I think they mean at least using only those who you know are consistent and reliable layers of well formed eggs with well formed contents.

All of them sank! Time for a late breakfast . . .

 

[redinator]

Wait a minute . . . doesn't that white spot mean they're fertile?

 

[NorthernHomestead]

You could float test the egg for freshness, but if it were me I'd toss it out (because it's summer even up where I live).

As far as fertility? The eggs may very well be fertile. Will you get a live chick out of it? Likely not. I have a girl who, for whatever reason, lays smaller eggs at a year old. She's not a small chicken. My roos aren't small. I incubated about ten of her eggs over the winter and candling showed positive results the first two weeks. None of them made it. Somehow during that last week they just ran out of room and died in the shell. :-(

New layers lay small eggs for a few weeks.

 

[redinator]

You could float test the egg for freshness, but if it were me I'd toss it out (because it's summer even up where I live).

As far as fertility? The eggs may very well be fertile. Will you get a live chick out of it? Likely not. I have a girl who, for whatever reason, lays smaller eggs at a year old. She's not a small chicken. My roos aren't small. I incubated about ten of her eggs over the winter and candling showed positive results the first two weeks. None of them made it. Somehow during that last week they just ran out of room and died in the shell. :-(

New layers lay small eggs for a few weeks.

Good to know since the one laying is the larger of the two older pullets and the eggs are pretty small.

 

[Ridgerunner]

How do I check if the eggs are suitable for consumption? Should I toss the lot and start fresh? They could be older than 6 days, especially if she's laying every other day.

What makes an egg dangerous to eat is when bacteria get inside and multiply. That is called a rotten egg and can stink really badly. A hen can lay eggs for two weeks in a hidden nest and then incubate them for three weeks before they hatch. Other fowl like turkey and ducks can lay and incubate for even longer without the eggs going rotten.

I often store unwashed eggs on my kitchen counter for a month before I eat them. They do not go bad. If you boil eggs you don't want them to be really fresh. A fresh egg can be hard to peel as the white is more likely to come off with the eggshell.

I agree you always need to open our eggs in a separate bowl before mixing them with anything else. Even really fresh eggs. Eggs can contain blood spots or meat spots. Commercial operations candle their eggs before they package them for sale to remove any that have meat spots or blood spots. It's not that blood spots or meat spots are unsafe, but they are unappetizing.

Some people say they can taste or tell when an egg is fresh versus old. We all have different levels of our senses, I don't doubt that some people can. I cannot. I also know when we do a blind taste test with beer the results are often surprising. The most expensive usually does not win. I take all of this as personal preference type stuff and don't worry about it.

What are the odds that eggs from a 20 week old pullet would be fertile/viable for hatching? I have seen one of the boys mount her a few times over the last two weeks. I wouldn't try to hatch these since I don't know how old they are, but . . . some chicks sure would be nice, lol.

The egg laying process is pretty complicated. When they first start to lay you can get shell-less or soft-shelled eggs, double yolkers, no yolkers, no whites, or just flat out strange eggs. For an egg to hatch it has to be about perfect. There are things you cannot see when you open them that may not be just right. To me, it is amazing how many seem to get it right to start with. The eggs are generally pretty small when they first start to lay but they gradually get larger the longer they lay.

I've hatched pullet eggs. You can hatch them. But I find the hatch rate with pullet eggs is often not as good as with eggs from hens that have been laying longer. Sometimes you get a really good hatch rate, sometimes not. The best example is when I included 5 eggs from one pullet and 6 from another along with other regular eggs. Both had just started to lay. I could tell by color which pullet had laid which. Of the 6 eggs, five hatched healthy chicks. Not bad. Of the five, zero hatched. Zip. Nada. None. I don't know if something was wrong with her eggs or if the rooster had not yet fertilized her eggs. They did not even start to develop.

The chicks that hatch are small. There are not enough nutrients in the small eggs for them to grow that big. In general they are healthy and active. I seldom lose a chick once it hatches. The percentage of the ones I do lose are higher if they hatched from pullet eggs. Again, most are healthy and do fine but the risk with them is higher than with chicks that hatched from eggs from hens that had been laying longer. I don't know if that is because they are smaller when they hatch or if maybe they had a latent birth defect from something not being quite right with the egg.

I find that if I wait a month after they start to lay to collect eggs for hatching most of these problems go away. They have straightened out any laying issues they had when they started laying and the eggs are larger.

 

[redinator]

What makes an egg dangerous to eat is when bacteria get inside and multiply. That is called a rotten egg and can stink really badly. A hen can lay eggs for two weeks in a hidden nest and then incubate them for three weeks before they hatch. Other fowl like turkey and ducks can lay and incubate for even longer without the eggs going rotten.

I often store unwashed eggs on my kitchen counter for a month before I eat them. They do not go bad. If you boil eggs you don't want them to be really fresh. A fresh egg can be hard to peel as the white is more likely to come off with the eggshell.

I agree you always need to open our eggs in a separate bowl before mixing them with anything else. Even really fresh eggs. Eggs can contain blood spots or meat spots. Commercial operations candle their eggs before they package them for sale to remove any that have meat spots or blood spots. It's not that blood spots or meat spots are unsafe, but they are unappetizing.

Some people say they can taste or tell when an egg is fresh versus old. We all have different levels of our senses, I don't doubt that some people can. I cannot. I also know when we do a blind taste test with beer the results are often surprising. The most expensive usually does not win. I take all of this as personal preference type stuff and don't worry about it.


The egg laying process is pretty complicated. When they first start to lay you can get shell-less or soft-shelled eggs, double yolkers, no yolkers, no whites, or just flat out strange eggs. For an egg to hatch it has to be about perfect. There are things you cannot see when you open them that may not be just right. To me, it is amazing how many seem to get it right to start with. The eggs are generally pretty small when they first start to lay but they gradually get larger the longer they lay.

I've hatched pullet eggs. You can hatch them. But I find the hatch rate with pullet eggs is often not as good as with eggs from hens that have been laying longer. Sometimes you get a really good hatch rate, sometimes not. The best example is when I included 5 eggs from one pullet and 6 from another along with other regular eggs. Both had just started to lay. I could tell by color which pullet had laid which. Of the 6 eggs, five hatched healthy chicks. Not bad. Of the five, zero hatched. Zip. Nada. None. I don't know if something was wrong with her eggs or if the rooster had not yet fertilized her eggs. They did not even start to develop.

The chicks that hatch are small. There are not enough nutrients in the small eggs for them to grow that big. In general they are healthy and active. I seldom lose a chick once it hatches. The percentage of the ones I do lose are higher if they hatched from pullet eggs. Again, most are healthy and do fine but the risk with them is higher than with chicks that hatched from eggs from hens that had been laying longer. I don't know if that is because they are smaller when they hatch or if maybe they had a latent birth defect from something not being quite right with the egg.

I find that if I wait a month after they start to lay to collect eggs for hatching most of these problems go away. They have straightened out any laying issues they had when they started laying and the eggs are larger.

All six eggs sank when I did the water test so I cracked them into a seperate bowl, one at a time . . . all were perfectly formed aside from being a bit small . . . which I now know is normal.

I went ahead and fried them up and the taste was a bit bland to be honest. One of the big reasons I decided to start keeping chickens is store bought eggs always cause stomach issues for me. It's only been about an hour, so we'll see how things go.

I'll give them time to work out the kinks and maybe someone will go broody , if not I have a few small/medium incubators I'm dying to test out

 

[NorthernHomestead]

Good to know since the one laying is the larger of the two older pullets and the eggs are pretty small.

They'll get gradually larger over the next few weeks. I know it's annoying after waiting so long for them to even lay eggs. :-/