How Long to Wait?

[Jay13]

I set 13 eggs under my broody hen 29 days ago, but what with the heat ect I'm not sure what to expect??? How much longer should I let her sit on these before I replace them with different eggs? Do you think she will stay broody for another 28 days??? She is a generic barred rock bird, she successfully hatched a batch of chicks for me last summer no problems. When I check my eggs for eating ect, they all have the target bullseye on them so I am *assuming* that they are fertile. Oh, and it took me about a week to accumulate the eggs that she is sitting on and they stayed cool in the house but not refrigerated. Any help that you all can give me is much appreciated.

 

[9 Feathers Farm]

What type of eggs are you trying to hatch? If they are chicken eggs I would say they probly are not going to hatch.

 

[afishel]

29 days is a few days over is there anyway you can candle the eggs? I would think they would be rotten by now unless is it possibly u mis calculated your days? NOT assuming just asking dont be offended please !!!
most people give up day 25

 

[Jay13]

Yes, chicken eggs, no, I marked it on the calendar. After looking around the website, I noticed that I was way off the number of days to hatch and have pulled the eggs replacing them with new ones from today/yesterday. I hope that she will sit long enough on these. She is definitely broody but had a couple other hens decide that her nest was right where *they* wanted to lay. for instance I put 13 eggs under her, but pulled out 17....hmmmmm and have had to chase other chickens out of the pen that I set up just for her.

Do you all have any tips on keeping her on the nest? I am hoping that this cooler weather will help. And will she sit for 3 more weeks? Or can they not tell time? Thanks again. I only waited until day 29 because i misremembered it taking 28 days to hatch....rofl... shows how often I have done this. I will sort through and candle the eggs better tomorrow but from what I can see, there were several with BIG air pockets which means no chick right? I have to wait until I can sit outside to crack them open, because I am sure there will be stinkers in there.

 

[afishel]

Quote:
I made marks on eggs under my broody and daily I checked and removed any eggs that werent marked on! I also put food and water in necks reach for my broody hen.
As for her sitting another 3 weeks that is up to her some will some won't ! sorry you could seperate her completely from the flock most do.

The air sac does not always mean no chick you should look at other end where the yolk is and look for wiggling ! AS for stinkers you should be able to do the sniff test. Good luck

If u set the eggs early in morning that is considered day 1 if u set them late in the day the next full day is day 1! AND 21 DAYS later IS the day!!! LOL j/t

 

[PunkinPeep]

It's a good idea to mark her eggs so that you can remove extras each day.

She may or may not sit for another 3 weeks, but i would be concerned about her health. Since a broody hen eats and drinks very little while setting, she really needs the recoop time in between.

 

[Jay13]

I think she may have spent too much time "up and about" this last month. My 2 year old loves to feed the chickens and tosses out BOSS for them. And of course he got a bunch in the little run that I have set up for her. Its tough to check the eggs each day since her nest is inside a dogloo and its nearly impossible for me to get in she has been eating well (so far as I can tell) and her color is still ok if a bit faded. Unfortunately she is the only one that has decided to go broody. My main pout about this whole issue is that I thought for once I would know who's eggs were hatching but since we are doing a "re-do" and there is not much time left in the season I'll have to roll the dice again. I have 13 laying hens right now and I get about 8 -9 eggs per day so they are either doing really well taking turns or a couple of them are just lazy.

ETA: I will try putting the food dish in with her and see if that help keep her inside. At least the weather is starting to cool off some now. (Central NC)

 

[afishel]

Quote:
Also I dont know if others do this but when I give the flock a treat I give my broody her own treat! this could help if it is the treats she is leaving for!!

 

[callen]

most chicks hatch in 21 to 22 days if you are taking about chickens if i were you i would replace the egg

 

[Ridgerunner]

Quote:
I don't look at it as Day 1, Day 18, whatever, I look at it as days of development. Whether you set the egg in the morning or in the afternoon it does not have 24 hours (1 day) of development until it has been set 24 hours. If you set the eggs on, say, Wednesday the 8th at 7:00 a.m. to pick a day and time, and you candle them in the morning on the 16th, you should look at the day 8 pictures, not the day 9 pictures. If you candle them at 7:00 p.m, not in the morning, the development should be between the day 8 and day 9 pictures. In this case, day 18 and lockdown would be the morning of Sunday the 26th, not sometime on Saturday the 25th. Expected hatch day would be the morning of Wednesday the 29th, not Tuesday the 28th. With chicken eggs and 21 days of development, the day of the week you set them on is the day of the week they should hatch. In this example, you set them on Wednesday so they should hatch on a Wednesday.

I know development and hatching is not this precise. Different eggs develop at different rates. When candling, they may be more or less developed than the precise picures show. Hatching is not an instantaneous process and can take many hours. Lockdown does not have to be at precisely 18 days. A few hours either way is not a big deal. If the incubator runs a bit warm, the eggs will hatch early. If the incubator runs a tad cool, the eggs will hatch a bit late. Eggs under hens can be early or late also. But if you are going to adjust the thermostat on your incubator to target the correct 21 day period, I think it is good to know what the 21 day period actually is. If you are targetting lockdown for after 18 days of development, I think it is good to know when 18 days have passed.

My incubator runs a little hot. I've had eggs pip shortly after I go into lockdown after 18 days and actually hatch after 19 days of development. Analyzing the eggs afterwards, I don't think the"late" lockdown affected the hatch at all. They are often a lot tougher than we think. But I do know for sure they hatched early and I need to adjust the thermostat down.