mmmarta
Songster
- May 21, 2020
- 61
- 83
- 126
I need help! First chick hatched a week ago, followed by 3 more, what do I do with the other eggs, if I don't know when exactly they were layed?
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The story:
After laying for 6 weeks, my Little Hen went broody - I did not have a heart to break her broodiness.
She started with two eggs, and kept laying, and other hens kept adding eggs into her box, although they had another one at their disposal. I ended up with 12 eggs under her! (I still took some away). In the meantime another hen went broody, and ended up with 6 eggs.
I have four chicks now, hatched 7, 6, and 5 or 4 days ago.
What do I do with the unhatched eggs? Do I wait to give them a chance? I read stories about exploding eggs But i don't want to kill chicks if they are about to hatch
I did some things wrong or potentially wrong:
- I did not mark the eggs with a date (dumb, did not think they will keep laying);
- I never candled them, assuming that the hens know better. I am anxious to touch any of the eggs now;
- I've moved one hen off the eggs every day to let her out - she would not move otherwise. Now i have to move all of them, otherwise they poop in the nest. Did the eggs get cold? The temps were above in the 60ies;
- At some point in the 3rd week I've marked the eggs in the nest with a marker (shame) - did I kill the chicks?
- So many eggs! Was the hen even able to warm them all? I would assume that at least the ones ain the middle of the nest should be fine...
Oh Wise Community, what do I do?
And a dumb question - what do I do with the unhatched eggs? How do you discard of them?
Thank you so much!
--
The story:
After laying for 6 weeks, my Little Hen went broody - I did not have a heart to break her broodiness.
She started with two eggs, and kept laying, and other hens kept adding eggs into her box, although they had another one at their disposal. I ended up with 12 eggs under her! (I still took some away). In the meantime another hen went broody, and ended up with 6 eggs.
I have four chicks now, hatched 7, 6, and 5 or 4 days ago.
What do I do with the unhatched eggs? Do I wait to give them a chance? I read stories about exploding eggs But i don't want to kill chicks if they are about to hatch
I did some things wrong or potentially wrong:
- I did not mark the eggs with a date (dumb, did not think they will keep laying);
- I never candled them, assuming that the hens know better. I am anxious to touch any of the eggs now;
- I've moved one hen off the eggs every day to let her out - she would not move otherwise. Now i have to move all of them, otherwise they poop in the nest. Did the eggs get cold? The temps were above in the 60ies;
- At some point in the 3rd week I've marked the eggs in the nest with a marker (shame) - did I kill the chicks?
- So many eggs! Was the hen even able to warm them all? I would assume that at least the ones ain the middle of the nest should be fine...
Oh Wise Community, what do I do?
And a dumb question - what do I do with the unhatched eggs? How do you discard of them?
Thank you so much!