Is this normal?

[Shoryb]

so after figuring out (with assistance form some awesome peps on here) that I do actually have a male female pair.... I caught my female laying eggs.

Her and the male have only been together about a day and half so I’m not sure if he is capable of fertilizing these eggs or if she was possibly breed by another male in the same enclosure (where I got them from had mixed sex’s in their cage)

I did buy an incubator tonight from Walmart along with everything I will need for brooding (except the feeders and feed) Incase she doesn’t incubate them herself.

She laid the egg in a hiding spot but aside from her laying it, I have not seen her incubate it at all. This her her first egg.

how long do I have before I can light test it? (Their incubation is really short right?like 16 days?) and if she doesn’t sit on it how long do I give her before removing egg and putting it in the incubator?

Also what is the best recommendation for baby feed?


The pic is her single egg

 

[Hot Pepper Man]

If she does go broody, she won't try to incubate until she has laid all the eggs from her clutch. Often buttons lay eggs all over then collect them into a nest in one swoop when they're ready to sit on them. Clutches can be half a dozen to over a dozen so if you want to see if she's interested in brooding you might wait until there are a dozen or so before collecting them yourself.

Depending how dark the eggs are they can be extremely difficult to candle. They have blood vessels showing in 3-4 days. At 7 days there is a fair sized very distinct embryo and I think around then would be the easiest time to candle if there was difficulty seeing blood vessels.

 

[DK newbie]

I've seen it written in many places that buttons lay their eggs all over and gather them in one nest when they go broody. Mine never have. If they lay eggs all over, they don't go broody. If they lay all eggs in the same nest, there is a good chance they'll go broody once there are 8-10 eggs.
There is a chance she'll stop laying for a week or two after being moved - the egg she's already laid might just have been on the way already. If she stops laying, there is no point in collecting 1-2 eggs for incubation (too high a risk you'll end up with only one chick, or none at all, and chicks don't do well alone), and she won't go broody herself. But once she's laid a clutch, you might get lucky. Mine prefer dense cover - you should be nearly unable to see the nest, for the best chance she'll stay there for 16 days. They also like dry grass as bedding in the nest area.
But as HPM said, she'll need to go broody and stay on the eggs for several days before you can candle. If you decide to collect the eggs to brood them yourself, fertility starts to drop 1-2 weeks after the eggs have been laid so I wouldn't collect for more than 14 days.

Chick feed can be the same as adult feed, assuming you are feeding the adults something with more than 20% protein (which you should). You might need to grind it to chick size.