Olive egger breeding / rainbow eggs

[Radrussie]

So I have been waiting ages for my new laying hen yo start laying. Have found 1 or 2 eggs in the past but today stumbled on the mother load .

these eggs are from the offspring of my green egg layers over my BCM rooster.

I was worried about the genetics of the BCM but seems to be doing the job.

at least 5 hens in his flock.
3 are definitely his offspring.

Have spoken about flock in previous threads.

We have had heavy rains the last 2 days do you think these eggs are still viable. They where not under water and dont think the hen was sitting yet

 

[Ridgerunner]

Oh, you are going to have fun.

Personally I would not incubate them yet. A small part of that is that they were out in the rain so the protective coat of bloom may have been compromised.

My main concern is that it sounds like they have just started to lay. You can hatch pullet eggs, I have. The eggs are typically very small so any chicks that hatch from them have to be small. There is not enough room or nutrition in there to grow large chicks. The genetics are going to be the same, the small eggs do not affect genetics. But you often do not get great hatches with pullet eggs.

An egg has to be put together pretty much perfectly for it to hatch. A lot of pullets get that right with their first eggs but many take a while to work all of the kinks out of their egg making process. That means your hatch rate will probably be lower. I have had good hatch rates with pullet eggs but I've also had horrible hatches.

The eggs are small so the chicks are small. Most of the chicks that hatch do fine. But I find I can have a higher mortality rate with those small chicks as compared to chicks that hatch out of larger eggs. The mortality rate is still pretty low but it is noticeable with mine. The eggs will get larger as they lay.

One hatch I had five eggs from a specific pullet where the eggs were not yet fertilized. I don't know if she failed to squat and ran away or if the rooster had not even noticed her yet.

I've found that these problems tend to go away after they have laid about a month. The eggs are noticeably bigger and the pullets have corrected any issues with putting the eggs together properly.

I assume you are talking about using an incubator. You obviously cannot put eggs under a broody until she goes broody. Most pullets are not going to go broody for a while. Most of mine don't go broody until after their first molt, though some do. A lot of hens never go broody in their life.

I'd suggest waiting another three to four weeks to start gathering the eggs for hatching. You want them all to start incubati0n at the same time. Let us know how it goes.

 

[Radrussie]

Going to give I a try as I am wanting to get my numbers up anyway. Will incubate these and see how it goes