New Layer

[mc79]

My Jersey Giant laid her first egg the day before yesterday. It was laughably small, as to be expected for new layers. It was, however, fertilized (by my only rooster, a silkie). She laid her second egg this morning, which was the same size as her first one. My question is: If it is fertilized, will incubating the egg come to fruition, given the tiny size of the egg? Will a chick have room to grow in there?

 

[theuglychick]

Yes! It will, but you should consider a few things. I was told that the chicks will be too big for the egg and will not be able to get into the right position to hatch. Knowing this, and ready to assist if needed, I decided to try a test batch of pullet eggs. These were from their second month of laying (still VERY tiny eggs, but probably not as small as first few eggs).

I successfully hatched a clutch of cream legbars from pullet eggs. The big difference here is that the CCL chicks are TINY. I'm not sure how big a Jersey Giant chick is, but if the breed name is any indication, it's probably significantly larger and you could run into problems with hatching.

 

[mc79]

Yes! It will, but you should consider a few things. I was told that the chicks will be too big for the egg and will not be able to get into the right position to hatch. Knowing this, and ready to assist if needed, I decided to try a test batch of pullet eggs. These were from their second month of laying (still VERY tiny eggs, but probably not as small as first few eggs).

I successfully hatched a clutch of cream legbars from pullet eggs. The big difference here is that the CCL chicks are TINY. I'm not sure how big a Jersey Giant chick is, but if the breed name is any indication, it's probably significantly larger and you could run into problems with hatching.

Yeah, Jersey Giants definitely get big, but this egg is fertilized by a silkie (bantam), so I'd imagine that will bring the size of the offspring down considerably. Here are a couple of pictures of the egg:

 

[Dayrel]

If you have concerns, why not wait until she lays a larger egg? As noted, the earliest eggs are generally small. It is likely that she will lay variable sized eggs for a while and you can try to hatch a later, larger egg instead.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Incubating and hatching such eggs is problematic enough most folks opt not to do it. Better to wait sand give yourself and the eggs the best chance of success

 

[theuglychick]

Hmmm, ol grey mare is right.

I'm not an expert on size inheritance.

However, curiosity always wins out. If it were me I'd probably go for it and just see what happens.

 

[MagpieDucks]

It's best to wait until the chicken is laying normal sized eggs to incubate. Problems may arise with pullet eggs.

 

[mc79]

I didn't put the egg in the incubator. I was just curious of others' opinions as to whether it could be done or not. While I am anxious to use my incubator for the first time, I will wait until I start getting normal sized eggs (from her, at least). It's odd...in my flock, I have 2 silkies (one roo, one pullet), 3 RIRs, 1 Silver-Laced Wyandotte, 1 White Leghorn, 1 Turken, and 1 Jersey Giant...and the ONLY one that my silkie roo pursues is the Jersey Giant. He hasn't even made an attempt to mount any of the others. He follows the JG around everywhere and basically ignores the others...lol.

 

[mc79]

I ended up cracking the egg in question open, just to see if it was even fertilized:

 

[MagpieDucks]

I ended up cracking the egg in question open, just to see if it was even fertilized:

View attachment 1125532 View attachment 1125533

Yup that's fertile allright!