Question from a newbie

[Michelle Spall]

Hi all,
I have a first time mum. She was sitting on 19 eggs, booted 2 out, I candled them, nothing so removed them.Yes I have a drake.
Quite often when I check on her not all the eggs are covered.
We are on day 9. While she was swimming I quickly candled the eggs and from my limited experience, I think only about 4 are fertile.
My question is do I remove some eggs and try them in the incubator or do I just let her be?
Do unfertilised eggs go rotten?
All advice is much appreciated

 

[thumper29a]

Completely up to you.. But I would candle and put in incubator.. They do rot and it stinks...

 

[enoryz]

We had one that rotted. My wife almost gave up eating those eggs after. We weren't trying to hatch any. We had them on the counter. Stunk very bad.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Oh it's awful and if it happens in the nest full of eggs it can spread nasty bacteria all over.

 

[Silkiesarefluffydinos]

I would wait a few more days. When we first got ducks, we got eggs from them, and a chicken brooded them. We thought since they were late, they were all dead, so we had tossed 5 eggs. 2 eggs had ducklings in them, so we left the rest. There were 8 eggs, and we hatched 3 ducklings from them. I say to give it a little while longer. I'm sure you still have some living chicks

 

[chickens really]

What I do is as my Hen kicks out the eggs I toss them...She knows pretty good which are no good...Is she totally setting on the eggs and not leaving the nest, only to poop and feed...Give them a few days longer and then candle again....Or incubate them yourself......

 

[Michelle Spall]

Thanks for all you advice.
I waited another week and removed 5 of the eggs I original thought were infertile.
I put in the incubator and are now on day 4
only 1 was infertile, 3 are definite embryo's and 1 a maybe
My next question is what day do I class the incubator eggs as?
The eggs still in the nest are on day 12

I should add they are Muscovy ducks so they have a 35 day hatch.

 

[chickens really]

You count day one 24 hours after you put them in the incubator...Best wishes...

 

[thumper29a]

I could guesstimate from years of candling.. When one half of the eggs is dark with chick then it's around 14 day incubation..