How could she tell?

[racuda]

I put 10 Guinea eggs under a Cochin hen 9 days ago. Tonight I decided to candle them.

The first one I came to was... not exactly cold, but it wasn't broody temp either. Maybe 85 degrees. I could see nothing in it with the flashlight, so I moved on to egg number 2. It had normal development for 9 days. I checked another, and another. All were fine.

I brought the egg inside and opened it. It looked just like a fresh egg. The yolk was intact, not broken like every other non-developing egg I've seen. Furthermore, it was not fertile! There was no bullseye, just a small solid white dot.

So, how could she possibly know the egg would't hatch and not therefore not incubate it? Any theories?

 

[chicks4kids]

I have no idea how they can tell, but my first broody discarded eggs out of the nest before too. It's funny how they know...

 

[lovinlife]

Maybe the temp of fertilized eggs is different once they're under the broodie, so they can tell the colder ones aren't fertile.

 

[racuda]

Maybe so, or maybe they just smell different. I think it is fascinating!

 

[Cindiloohoo]

Maybe they can feel the heartbeat, or movement in the eggs. Ya gotta think that'd be like one of us sitting on a egg the size of a grapefruit in comparison to body mass. They'd almoost have to be able to feel movement in there.

 

[Intheswamp]

The pulse of life is "heard" but death is silent.

Ed