Imagine my surprise when....

[Kedreeva]

I walked into my coop this morning to check on everyone before I left for work, and spotted an egg in the corner. The three turkey hens that are sheltering with the peas over this winter should start laying soon, so I thought it was one of theirs... but when I arrived and picked it up, sure enough, it was a dang peafowl egg!



Ladies what are you even doing! It is February 2nd, not April Fool's day! There's 16 inches of snow on the ground! WHICH ONE OF YOU IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS SHENANIGAN!

So... is anyone else getting eggs yet or are my birds the only completely insane creatures out there right now?

 

[KsKingBee]

We have seen three or four other people post getting eggs, @Garden Peas has been getting them since December and should have some hatching soon.

 

[Kedreeva]

I wonder what's up? Are the others with eggs living in warmer climates because here it's been cold cold cold and grey and snowy... I'm planning to check fertility on this one when I get home tonight but I can't imagine it is. I'm not ready!! My old incubator broke this past fall and I thought I had 2-3 months to get a new one XD

Which, let me just also say. I was unprepared to even FIND it and I didn't want to trek back to the house to put the egg away so I took it to work with me and I had to ride the elevator down a lot of flights in the parking garage, across from this lady that was just staring at me holding this giant egg.

She finally got up the nerve to ask me "That's not a chicken egg, is it?" I don't think "It's a peacock egg." is what she was expecting to hear!

 

[thndrdancr]

Hey, its so nice to see you post. Havent seen you around in forever!

Don't know what's with the birds this year. Not just warm climes though. Mine are displaying and chasing but no eggs yet, thank goodness! A few have said they have red heat lamps I do believe, but I have a red one and nothing thus far.

 

[Kedreeva]

Had a pretty rough few months, so I wasn't around much.

I thought maybe the red heat lamp was throwing them off when they were in the all-indoor enclosure last winter, but we did heated perches this year so there's no red light. The only thing they have is a row of LED lights around the ceiling so they can see it and so that they will go into the coop at night rather than stay out on the non-heated perches. It's on all the time, but it's more like a night light than anything.

I cracked the egg open, and even though one of my males is not quite 2 years old and the other is Blu, my one-legged boy... somehow the egg had that pretty little bullseye on it... so I guess we get to buy an incubator a lot sooner than anticipated!

 

[Garden Peas]

I wonder what's up? Are the others with eggs living in warmer climates because here it's been cold cold cold and grey and snowy... I'm planning to check fertility on this one when I get home tonight but I can't imagine it is. I'm not ready!! My old incubator broke this past fall and I thought I had 2-3 months to get a new one XD

Which, let me just also say. I was unprepared to even FIND it and I didn't want to trek back to the house to put the egg away so I took it to work with me and I had to ride the elevator down a lot of flights in the parking garage, across from this lady that was just staring at me holding this giant egg.

She finally got up the nerve to ask me "That's not a chicken egg, is it?" I don't think "It's a peacock egg." is what she was expecting to hear!

LOL -- that must have been hilarious! Glad to see you are back

We have seen three or four other people post getting eggs, @Garden Peas has been getting them since December and should have some hatching soon.

Sigh, I wish

Up to egg #21 now. I do think maybe the red heat lamps have something to do with it, and I will try to change out to non-light producing heat before next winter.

The first 7 were clear, and are long gone. #8 - #10 have all quit, I think, at varying stages, though they had all gotten maybe halfway or a little more. Everything after that (#11 and up) that I had candled so far was still progressing, except for one which has a blood ring and obviously quit very early. Some of them are definitely farther along than those quitters, so I am still hopeful.

I think the losses must be a bacterial issue. I have now started disinfecting with hydrogen peroxide, so far I have treated the latest four eggs. The first one I treated is probably just about far enough along to candle, though I haven't yet. I thought I would do maybe five with the peroxide, and then try some with bleach solution. I also want to try the "quats" but haven't figured out what or how much to use yet. I don't have enough eggs to run a scientific sample, but at this point, any increase would be something.

She just laid egg #21 last evening, so no clue how long this will go on.

A cautionary note: I warmed the peroxide last evening, since the egg was still warm from being hatched, and the stuff I read when I researched it suggested the disinfecting solution should be warmer than the egg, although not higher than 110F. So I did that... and I actually burned my fingers with the peroxide

It wasn't the heat -- temperature was fine -- it was a chemical burn. I started noticing the tingling when I was transferring the egg to the bator... immediately went and washed my hands. It looked like I had spray paint all over them, even after I thoroughly washed with soap and water a couple of times and dried in between. I think maybe heating the peroxide made it more reactive, and maybe it was just burning (oxidizing) dead or calloused or rough skin on my fingers, but I'm glad I got it off quickly after that. My hands are okay today.... but that is the first time I ever got burned by the stuff. I always thought of it as very benign. (That's what I get for thinking

)

 

[Kedreeva]

I would consider adding a little bit of peroxide to the incubator in whatever area your water is (instead of water a 1:10 solution of peroxide:water). putting chemicals directly on the egg seems like a more risky path since a) as you discovered it's not very benign and b) if the bacteria is in your incubator already, a one time disinfect of the egg with a chemical that may have dissolved some of the egg's natural defenses might not be enough or might even make the egg more vulnerable.

I would strongly advise you not to use bleach on anything going into an incubator, especially something porous like an egg. Heated bleach, even traces of it, creates chlorine gas which is deadly toxic. You definitely don't want to expose your eggs or hatching chicks to that. I exposed my own self to hated bleach once and nearly died... spent three days wishing I was because I was so sick.

If you're worried about bacteria And want to wipe down your eggs with something, I'd go with rubbing alcohol. It will kill pretty much anything and it evaporates quickly enough that you can just let the egg dry for a few before putting it in the incubator. it also shouldn't mess with or breakdown your egg's mineral coating. No need to warm it up!

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for your hatch! My first egg was fertile so we're putting in an order for a new incubator tomorrow evening. You'll have a hatching buddy soon!

 

[Garden Peas]

I would consider adding a little bit of peroxide to the incubator in whatever area your water is (instead of water a 1:10 solution of peroxide:water). putting chemicals directly on the egg seems like a more risky path since a) as you discovered it's not very benign and b) if the bacteria is in your incubator already, a one time disinfect of the egg with a chemical that may have dissolved some of the egg's natural defenses might not be enough or might even make the egg more vulnerable.

I would strongly advise you not to use bleach on anything going into an incubator, especially something porous like an egg. Heated bleach, even traces of it, creates chlorine gas which is deadly toxic. You definitely don't want to expose your eggs or hatching chicks to that. I exposed my own self to hated bleach once and nearly died... spent three days wishing I was because I was so sick.

If you're worried about bacteria And want to wipe down your eggs with something, I'd go with rubbing alcohol. It will kill pretty much anything and it evaporates quickly enough that you can just let the egg dry for a few before putting it in the incubator. it also shouldn't mess with or breakdown your egg's mineral coating. No need to warm it up!

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for your hatch! My first egg was fertile so we're putting in an order for a new incubator tomorrow evening. You'll have a hatching buddy soon!

@Kedreeva , I used to completely agree with you, and I never could have imagined putting bleach on a hatching egg. But then I did a bunch of reading and chasing down information... imagine my surprise to find that bleach (in an appropriate concentration) is actually safe and actually used on hatching eggs

I was completely shocked. I collected up links to all the information that seemed helpful, and posted all the various links with some descriptive information on this thread:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/945874/hatchright-spray

It started with a goofy product, but that got me looking into the idea, and I was pretty amazed at the information that I found. And I even read something somewhere that suggested increasing the pore size isn't always a bad thing... that pretty much shocked me too.

So far, I have used peroxide on 5 eggs, including one from this evening. I candled two of them earlier, and they have really vigorous veining... they look great. So it definitely has not kept them from developing so far. But we have three more weeks to go for those, and longer for the next three.

Meanwhile, I am just hoping that some of the original (untreated) eggs make it to hatching. We are up to the date when #11 should be pipping soon... but so far, no sign of it. Candling shows development to what looks like about the point of hatching, so there's hope, still. But I really think there's a bacterial problem in there, and I think I need to shut the bator down, sanitize the daylights out of it, and make sure I keep disinfecting the eggs that go into it. I can't imagine why I'm having such a problem. Wish I could test for specific bacteria...