Hello everyone!! I am fairly new to the chicken and duck thing. I love my chickens! I have had Momma, Jellybean, Alex (Aracauna rooster) and Fluffy (his hen), For a year now.. I also have 7 juevenile production red hens, Momma and Jellybean. I also have 5 Buff Orpington hens, 6 Black stars, 5 Delawares, 3 Silver Wyndotes (who are just starting to layeggs), 1 Barred Rock named Barbara, and two golden sex links (the rooster is named Peaches, he was supposed to be a girl and the hen is Butterscotch), I also have 7 juvenile Aracauna hens, 2 muscovy ducks (not sure of their sex yet, a mallard named David (he lost his mate and my 2 Rowens to a dog, grr), I lost 4 Aracaunas last summer to the heat, they went into the dog/duck house and wouldn't come out because our hen Momma was in the duck enclosure, I guess, and I have a pair of Indian Runners, (Speckles, the female, is currently sitting on 13 eggs due to hatch any day! She started with 20 but after candling several of them I found two dead almost ready to hatch (sad), and 3 nasty smelly ones! I candled a few more and they are pipped and one, I thought was dead, was alive, but the membrane is almost all white. I put tape over the small hole and put it back in the nest. Question; Should I take her remaining eggs and put them in the incubator to hatch? I'm sure there must be a humidity or heat issue. It gets cold at night (38-48 F) and the days are pretty cool also (50-68 degrees F). She lays on them most of the time, but she got off the nest for 2 hours today, so I'm getting concerned about them being able to hatch. Any thoughts?? Thanks in advance!
Hi and welcome to BYC - great that you have joined us. I'd say that the best place to get answers is the incubating and hatching eggs forum. If you do put them in the incubator, you could try to return them to the hen and see if she accepts them. Good luck CT
Resealing the egg with tape has probably already introduced bacteria that could kill any live chick. The stink eggs could contaminate the others as well
Greetings from Kansas, sassykassy, and ! Great to have you with us! I am a hatching rookie so I'll leave that topic to those better suited to discuss it. But I wish hatching success and thanks for joining BYC! :cd
Thanks! I got the incubator ready last night, so I think I will transfer 7 of them and leave the rest with momma, unless she doesn't stay on the nest today. I have camera out on the nest so I can see what's going on. I thought that, if she hatches a few of them maybe she will accept the other chicks that hatch in the incubator?? Anyway, I guess we'll see what happens..
Thanks! I was up for quite some time last night, reading up on what I should do. I am already learning so much from everyone else's posts. It's great!
I was looking online and they said to do that, but I am going to transfer eggs into the incubator today. I already removed the ones that candled and were rotten. They didn't break in the nest or anything. I guess this will be a learning experience. I will be more ready for the next batch. Thanks!
