Our first egg

[smoothmule]

My Black Spanish hen laid her first egg today
All of a sudden, I feel stupid so here goes.
I picked it up and have it in a clean egg carton in the house, I marked the date with a pencil, the small pointy end up. I plan to incubate my eggs or sell hatching eggs later once I have some successful hatches.

How long can they be kept before putting in an incubator? I only have one hen so it will only be an egg a day or so. Can I set them in groups to hatch a few at a time? And how many is a good group to set at one time?

Should I be seeing changes when I candle them within a day or two? sooner? later when in the incubator?

 

[tazcat70]

Quote:
Congratulations! I did the same thing.

The pointy end should be down, the air cell it located in the rounded area and it should be up.

The "rule" is 10 days, is the max you should keep them before setting them. Yes, you can set them in groups, it is called a staggered hatch. You can search for it to find out more information on it.

If the egg is fertile and in the incubator, you can sometimes see veins about day 5. It is best to candle at day 10, because then the chick has much more growth for you to see.

If the egg is not fertile or not in the incubator, you will see the air cell decreasing.

Now I will sound stupid, in order to have a fertile egg, you must have a rooster. The way your post was worded, I wasn't sure if you have one.

Good luck!!

 

[Mahonri]

Yeah, what tazcat said... tooK the words right out of my fingers....

Gotta have a rooster with that lone hen or you won't be able to incubate.

 

[tazcat70]

Shocking what being on BYC for hours and hours on end will teach you.

 

[smoothmule]

hehehe, I see where you're going

I have a tom too. They're both young but really good sized turkeys. The tom (Buddy) is a pet and I mean a pet. He still squats down for a hug. Up until he was around 15+ pounds, I could shake a cup of corn and he would jump up and sit on my arm to eat from the cup. He started getting so big he had to brace himself with one foot on my shoulder and before much longer, he was too big. He's still my buddy though. I raised him from a day old. The hen I got as a 6 month old and she isn't the least bit cuddly:/