How many eggs will actually hatch?

[chickenlover5001]

Hello everyone!

Okay, so I've got 18 full grown chickens altogether. These are their breeds and sexes: 16 Black Australorp females, 1 Black Bantam Cochin male, 1 huge Black Cochin male, 1 d'Uccle Mille Fluer male. (and all these chickens are in the same coop.) So anyways, I let 3 of our girls go broody, and now each of the three have been laying on several eggs for a while. One of them has seven eggs under her, and one chick which just hatched. Another hen has 12, the last one has 11. The problem is, we don't want 30 more baby chicks.

So, I'm hoping that maybe only half of the eggs are fertilized, and then that only half of those eggs will make it through the growing in the egg. So hopefully we will only end up with 5-7 or so. What I'm wondering is, how many chicks do you guys think will come out of this? The hens have been very good, so no problem there. The roosters are pretty active with the girls, and I know chickens can produce fertilized eggs a very long time after they're mated with. Also, not all of the eggs under those 3 hens are really their eggs. (they didn't lay all the eggs they're sitting on) So how many you guys think?

 

[CherylR]

I'm not an expert in these things (I'm sure there are others here that can give you better advice) but I can tell you that from my recent experience, I had ALL the eggs that my own girls laid, hatch out. I also had a dozen shipped eggs, of which only 5 hatched successfully. Of course, shipped eggs are subjected to a lot of bumping and moving around, etc... and can get a little scrambled so regardless of how well they were packaged, you often end up with an "iffy" hatch rate-but you go into it knowing that. I was happy with 5 out of 12! Anyway, I have 16 babies all together right now...my husband thinks I'm crazy! I will probably end up giving a few away to friends...we'll see how attached I get!!! Maybe you have a friend or two that would be interested in taking a few chicks...or you could post a sign at your local feed store? Anyhow, I hope you enjoy the incubation/hatching process...it is really very fascinating!

 

[Nsampsel]

Well...from everything I've read...you cold get anywhere between none & all...lol

It really all just depends on fertility & how good your broodies are. Maybe try candling some while they are sleeping & see how many are developing. If way more are developing than you want, steal a few eggs so they don't all hatch.

 

[chickenlover5001]

thing is, I think it would be really cool to get a Australorp / d'Uccle Mille Fluer mix, and I know you can't tell what breed chicks are from candling. (DUH) I think It'd be good to candle them and see how many are developing, but even if something looked clear, I'd be too scared to throw it away just incase. Also, even though the eggs are a light brown color, they're still kinda hard to candle because of how thick the shell is. So I guess I'll just have to wait it out and see how many we get. Hey, one more thing, the hen who had 12 eggs under her, well, one of her eggs exploded. Does that mean it was unfertilized and from all the heat just blew up, or what? It smelled like gross cheese, and the insides looked like expired milk only an orange color. So what does that mean? None of her eggs have hatched yet, only one chick has hatch out from the hen who has 7 eggs and a chick like I said.^^^ (The hen with the chick started earlier than the other two hens.)

 

[Nsampsel]

Exploded egg means it was rotten. Usually they will kick these out before they explode tho. Better smell the other eggs & see how many more stink & toss them or you will have more stink bombs contaminating the coop & eggs.

How long have your hens been sitting? It only takes 21 days (3 weeks) for a hatch. If there are eggs of several different ages under them they will likely abandon the remaining ones a day or 2 after the first couple hatch. You don't want to keep adding eggs to a nest at different days, or let the other hens keep laying in their nest.

 

[Sphinx]

Because you don't want/need 30 more chicks, I bet you get a whole bunch.

If you desperately wanted all of them to hatch, you'd get only a couple.

I agree with sniffing the eggs and tossing the stinky ones.

 

[chickenlover5001]

they've been on the eggs for about 19 or so days. I know that hens will abandon their eggs sometimes, thats why we did this: You know the hen who has the one chick and 7 eggs? well, we moved her to a small place by herself, so that she can raise her one chick, and incubate the remaining seven eggs at the same time. see, we have a little foyer for our chicken coop. we took a large bin, 3x2 or something like that, and put shavings in it. we then put a little nesting box inside the bin. afterwards, we put a waterer, and a feeder in there.(not in the nesting box, in the bin.) (we used one's for tiny baby chicks, to save space, and cuz this mommas raising chicks.) The little chick can go from the warmth of the nesting box with momma to the feed and water. so, the two other hens are still incubating their eggs in the coop. once their eggs hatch, we will put their babies' in with the momma who already has the one baby. this way, we can be sure the other 2 broodies will not abandon their eggs for chicks. I bet you're gonna say it was risky moving the momma so late into incubation, and I agree, but I wasn't really worried she would't like the new setup, bcuz she's so fixed on raising some chicks. she hasn't really gotten up much at all during the 3 weeks. she's so good. she can get out of the bin and into the foyer, but there is a step stool over there, so she can get back in. a couple eggs are hatching right now, so first thing tomorrow they meet their new momma. once all the chicks outgrow the bin, we'll let them roam the foyer, after that the coop. so tell me if you think I'm doing anything majorly wrong. also, to answer your other question, my husband is the one who kept adding more eggs, he doesn't really read up on this stuff, he just does it. lol.

 

[chickenlover5001]

Hey y'all! So excited about these two little guys!!

The one on the left we call Little Jo Bunyan, and the other one doesn't have a name yet. The one on the right has the fuzziest of legs.

Both of them are 1/2 Australorp 1/2 Cochin. We have a bantam Cochin, and a regular sized Cochin, but we're not sure which is the daddy of which..lol

We can hear a couple more peepers inside the eggies. Can't wait for 'em to pop out. Raising chicks is such a fun project, and it doesn't have to be stressful. It's actually pretty easy. So, anyways...IM'A CHICKEN OBSESSED!

ps: chicks are cute, adorable, sweet, calming, and distracting!

 

[Genesisdp]

thing is, I think it would be really cool to get a Australorp / d'Uccle Mille Fluer mix, and I know you can't tell what breed chicks are from candling. (DUH) I think It'd be good to candle them and see how many are developing, but even if something looked clear, I'd be too scared to throw it away just incase. Also, even though the eggs are a light brown color, they're still kinda hard to candle because of how thick the shell is. So I guess I'll just have to wait it out and see how many we get. Hey, one more thing, the hen who had 12 eggs under her, well, one of her eggs exploded. Does that mean it was unfertilized and from all the heat just blew up, or what? It smelled like gross cheese, and the insides looked like expired milk only an orange color. So what does that mean? None of her eggs have hatched yet, only one chick has hatch out from the hen who has 7 eggs and a chick like I said.^^^ (The hen with the chick started earlier than the other two hens.)

Each hen only lays 1 egg a day so they are never all theirs. That's why they lay in the same place so they can gather a clutch quicker sometimes other hens will lay eggsin the nest even after the broody has started intubating them therefore you will have different hatch days. Hatch rate depends on a lot of factors but if eggs are fertile and flock is strong should get around 90% hatch rate.