My banter hen layed her first egg. What do I do?

[cindyandevan]

I recently joined BYC and you all are helping me learn. You told me I had a banter hen and silky cockerall mix rooster. He has been trying to mate her for about 3 weeks and now there is a little egg. Do I put it in the incubator right away? by the way, my chickens are indoors at night and outside during nice weather. i dont have good sheltering in their pen outside, thats why the come in at night. I keep them in a huge empty fish tank. I am so excited but i dont know what im doing? thanks for any help.

 

[AlienChick]

If you only want to hatch the one (1) egg, then put it in the incubator.
If you want to hatch several eggs, collect more and put them in at the same time.
Since she just started laying, I probably would not hatch these eggs that she's laying now.
I would wait maybe a month then start collecting her eggs.
Store the eggs in an empty egg carton (pointy end down) and tilt the egg carton (prop it on something so one end is about an inch higher than the other).
Rotate the carton a few times a day until you're ready to put all the eggs into your incubator at once.
Keep the carton in a cool part of your house (I keep mine on the floor in the corner of the dining room).
Good luck!

 

[cindyandevan]

Thank you very much for your help. I put the egg in the incubator already (before I read this). She hasnt layed anymore yet. I am not sure how often to expect her to do so. I heard that her breed is not a high volume egg producer. Again, I have a lot to learn. When you say to save them in the egg carton, how long do I keep them in the carton before I move them to the incubator? I heard that after a few days of being in the incubator im supposed to flip them over each day. Is that true? i really appreciate your advise! Thanks so much!

 

[Mr MKK FARMS]

Good Luck!