The experiment begins! How many eggs can you save from a single hen.

[pascopol]

Forget all those speculations and "pushing envelope" stuff.

If you want lots of babies from your favorite hen, collect 5-6 eggs, set them , collect another 5-6 set them, collect another 5-6 set them, etc. until you reach the number you want.

Obviously this is staggered hatch.

I do it all the time, I can put any eggs in my bators anytime I want to.

It is called "FREEDOM OF HATCH"

We lost a lot of "FREEDOMS" in this country, let's enjoy the ones we have left.

LOL

You need another bator/hatcher to be able to do it.

But that,s the way to go.

 

[Delmar]

Quote:
How cold?

and tilt them twice a day. I know some people feel very strongly about not washing eggs, but I've tried both ways and washing gives me better results so that's how I do it.

If your hen is a good layer you should easily be able to save up a dozen eggs and have a good hatch from them.

Finally someone who is darning and unafraid and speaks my language. Except for the term "fortnight". I had to look that up

 

[MobyQuail]

fortnight= 14 days?

we are dealing with similar situation, have a nice hen, like my roo. have been planning on small hatches. some people do say quality over quantity.

in my situation, I kinda figure- we could be 7 days closer to seeing what chicks look like if only collect for 7 days. and then plan the next pairing/hatch.- imho

are you going to keep the roo until after the hatch date?

now in nature, how many eggs (max) does a hen lay before she goes broody on them is a good question to base your experiment.

I have heard/read of people hiding eggs from hens to get them to keep laying, then adding the earlier collected eggs back to the clutch when she finally goes broody.

I do appreciate the experimentology aspect, please keep me posted.

 

[Delmar]

Quote:
I haven't decided that yet. Actually I got a second EE roo in the meantime. One has tail feathers. One does not. I'm thinking about letting them both have a shot at her!

now in nature, how many eggs (max) does a hen lay before she goes broody on them is a good question to base your experiment.

I have heard/read of people hiding eggs from hens to get them to keep laying, then adding the earlier collected eggs back to the clutch when she finally goes broody.

I do appreciate the experimentology aspect, please keep me posted.

Will do!​

 

[Delmar]

So it begins! I have saved up 15 blue eggs from one hen over the last 16 days and I started the hatch today! I made sure to date every egg so that I can know for certain which eggs do not make it. I am aware that I will need to keep a close eye out to discard any eggs that are not going to develop. I am pretty optimistic because my last hatch was 13 of 16 and all 5 of my blue eggs, from this girl, made it.

 

[okdfarms]

you have nothing to loose. go for it. good luck.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

To get the most out of one hen an one incubation....

For the first two weeks you want to take each egg as you collect it an put it in the incubator for 6 hours. After that 6 hours take it out put it in the fridge. After that 2 weeks collect another 2 weeks worth of eggs the same way but dont put them in the fridge, put them somewhere around 60 degrees. After those two weeks you should have 4 weeks worth of eggs to go in the incubator. Most should hatch fine.

If you dont want to do the 6 hours in the incubator at collection time you can skip that an still have pretty good hatches anyway but the 6 hours does help.

Turning daily helps too.

 

[Delmar]

Quote:
I have always heard that putting them in the fridge was a bad thing. How long before incubation do you take them out?
My incubator is pretty full with 16 eggs, so I won't need to try a trick like that unless I build a bigger one. Besides, if this hatch goes well I am going to be up to my eyeballs in EEs and won't need to save eggs from just one hen any more.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Putting them in the fridge is a bad thing if you are setting the eggs before they are 14 days old. If you are keeping them over 14 days it helps. You would want to let them warm up a hour or three before putting them in the incubator.

 

[MobyQuail]

Good Luck!