Is this little silkie egg fertile?

[Cynthia12]

It really is hard to get a good photo of one. Here is one of mine. You should be able to see clearly that dot in the middle of a ring. Hope this helps you.

The bottom egg shows best.

 

[aart]

Yeah so not going to happen is it

Not likely, but who knows<shrugs>, but nothing wrong with gathering the info for when the fates present the opportunity.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I sure misunderstood your question didn't I? The others have covered for me quite well. The only certainty you have in all this is that if you do not try you will not succeed.

I'm not sure what you might try so I'll go through this. It takes an egg about 25 hours to go through a hen's internal egg making factory. That egg can only be fertilized during the first few minutes of that journey. That means if a successful mating takes place on a Thursday, Thursday's egg will not be fertile. Friday's egg might be but don't count on it. Saturday's egg should be fertile.

The last part of the mating act is that the hen stands up, fluffs her feathers, and shakes. That fluffy shake gets the sperm in the right "container" near where the egg starts it's journey. That sperm can remain viable from about 9 days til over three weeks. Most of us count on it being viable for two weeks, but longer is possible.

After the egg is laid the hatching quality deteriorates. The fresher the egg the more likely it is to hatch. But the later in the laying cycle it is laid the less likely it is to still be fertile. That presents a bit of a dilemma but where you are in that laying cycle I'd keep the eggs she is laying now for three weeks and take the chances.

Good luck.

 

[PouleChick]

Thanks all! So Doris (the cuckoo fluffball) laid an egg this afternoon while I was out so I now have 3 eggs in the box - dated and being tilted. I'm going to keep the eggs for 3 weeks post the last rooster contact day (so next Sunday) and then then I'll keep the eggs for up to 2 weeks (can get rid of them as they get older than that) to give them time to have a chance going broody! Will be so fun if they do it! Thanks for all your help, at least I get how it all works now!

 

[Trish1974]

If you want to hatch only her eggs or certain eggs, you can store them for a while. If you store them in certain conditions they can remain viable for two weeks or even a little longer, but the further you get from those ideal conditions the shorter that viable window is. Ideal storage conditions are about 13 C (55 F) and high humidity.

If you save eggs from one particular hen to hatch, say for 7 days, will there then be 7 days between hatching of the first one collected and the last one (set under a broody)?

 

[Ridgerunner]

If you save eggs from one particular hen to hatch, say for 7 days, will there then be 7 days between hatching of the first one collected and the last one (set under a broody)?

The 21 day incubation period starts when you start incubation. If you start incubation at the same time they should all hatch about the same time. When they are laid isn't important from that aspect.

 

[aart]

If you save eggs from one particular hen to hatch, say for 7 days, will there then be 7 days between hatching of the first one collected and the last one (set under a broody)?

You can save eggs to hatch for 7 days or so,
but you give them all to the broody at the same time so to avoid staggered hatch.