Question about nesting and incubation

[Glenmar]

My Spalding hen is penned in a 12x 12 horse stall. I put me male in with her long enough for them to breed. She started laying eggs right away. Because I have 3 in the incubator due to hatch this weekend, I decided to let her sit on these eggs. She is not sitting yet.

Some of these eggs may be more than 10 days old. She has been burying them in the corner. She fusses with the nest every day, just does not sit. Should I toss these eggs, rebreed her and start collecting again, or try to incubate them??

 

[MinxFox]

Hmm....Maybe you could collect all but one egg...?

I got all excited beacause I found two eggs in the same place and saw my peahen Ice messing with them, but she never added to the eggs or made a nest there or anything so today I took the eggs.

 

[Glenmar]

I was thinking of trying them, but what if they have not been turned. Would the chick grow to a certain point and be stuck in the shell??

 

[MinxFox]

Uhmm...I don't think that would be a problem....The egg that I hatched Peep out of I left in the pen for a few days to see if a peahen was going to do anything with the egg and I don't think the egg was turned at all. As long as while you incubate the egg you turn it you should be fine. Last year I tried to turn my eggs as often as I could. The average I would turn the eggs daily was about 5 times or more. I just have simple styrofoam incubators without turners so I do everything by hand.

 

[Glenmar]

It has been longer then a few days for these eggs, but I may try them. I guess I have nothing to loose, right??

 

[MinxFox]

Oh yeah I agree...Yesterday I put in an egg that was hatched out April 30th along with 5 other eggs into my incubator. I figure some of the older ones won't develop but who knows...I will be carefully looking at them when I candle. I write the date I find the eggs on them so that I know how old they are. I never really collect an egg until it has been in the pen long enough for the peahen to lay another egg next to it if she plans on turning it into a nest. If not then I take it.

 

[Amanda Patrick]

i have read that it doesnt matter how long the egg has been laid. (as long as it is in a fair amount of time and is cool outside) mitosis (division of the nucleus) should not start until the egg has been "sat" or incubated for 12 or 24 hrs. i forgot which one so i go with the 12hr to be safe.

 

[Kedreeva]

i have read that it doesnt matter how long the egg has been laid. (as long as it is in a fair amount of time and is cool outside) mitosis (division of the nucleus) should not start until the egg has been "sat" or incubated for 12 or 24 hrs. i forgot which one so i go with the 12hr to be safe.

The latter part of this is true- the egg doesn't start actually doing any "growing" until it's been incubated. However, the ability of the egg to begin mitosis diminishes as days pass. I think most people here wouldn't want to put eggs in an incubator past 7-10 days (I believe it's been quoted that around 10 days the hatchability drop below 30%... but don't quote me, I can't remember exactly). I wouldn't personally put in an egg from any of my birds (peafowl or otherwise) past 14 days. What you don't want is to add too old of an egg to your incubator, because it could turn bad - and possibly explode.

 

[Amanda Patrick]

oh okay thank you, no one ever told me that and i do not remember that in the readings but thank you

 

[Trefoil]

I just had an egg explode, its awful and fouls everything. Sooo, if you have an egg in the incubator that appears to be leaking or is stuck to the bottom of the incubator, remove all the other eggs and put somewhere safe BEFORE trying to remove the bad egg. That way all you have to worry about is disinfecting the incubator.