Urgent! Chicken Egg, No Incubator!

[Hopefully]

Actually, yes, she would. Are you saying this because there is a greater survival rate? My hens laid more eggs this morning.

 

[Hopefully]

But sadly... the hens have no interest in their new 3 eggs. All the eggs have been pecked at and are slightly dented.

 

[BayCityBabe]

Quote:
Excellent advice!

 

[Hopefully]

It is good advice for someone who isn't attached to their eggs yet.

 

[Katy]

So did you just get these chickens that you know so little about chickens and their eggs?

 

[Hopefully]

I've nearly had my chickens a year. Got them from a local feed store. I don't know much, my dad who grew up on a farm, insisted we get some. He doesn't feel right without the usual clucking and crowing. He knows a lot about chickens, not me. Especially with reproduction and egg production. My main job with the chickens is: feed them and love on them.

 

[Hopefully]

But I do know that they make quite a racket while laying an egg!

 

[dancingbear]

Quote:
Your hens won't pay any attention to the eggs unless they go broody. Normally, that's in the spring or early summer, though there are exceptions. Some breeds don't go broody at all, or at any rate, very seldom.

Until a hen is broody, she's not actually a "mother hen". She's just a hen who lays eggs.

Until an egg is incubated, there is no baby chick, even if the egg is fertile. It's just an egg.

Normal incubation temperature is 99.5F-100.5F. Normal human body temperature is 98.6. It's not much, but that single degree can make quite a difference in the health of the chicks, and how long it takes the eggs to hatch.

Most of the time when eggs get hatched in somebody's bra, it's eggs that have been set on by a hen until near hatch, then for some reason, (hen leaves the nest, or gets killed, or eggs were added after the first day, so there were multiple due dates and the hen had to leave some to care for the chicks that already hatched, etc.) there were eggs with no hen, and people decided to try to finish incubating them. I did that once myself, many, many, years ago. The egg hatched, too.

There was a BYC member who hatched some eggs this way, and did the whole incubation in her bra. So it can be done, but I'm not sure you're in a good position to pull it off, what with school gym class, and so on.

If you don't have a developing embryo by 5-7 days, you might want to wait until you can buy or build an incubator, and try again. Your hens will still be laying fertile eggs. You could save eggs and set them aside, at room temperature, until you have the number you want to incubate, then start them all at once.

Whether your eggs hatch or not, this will be a good learning experience for you. Good luck to you, please keep us all posted on what happens!

 

[Hopefully]

Thanks for the great answer. If these eggs don't make it, I will be looking to building my own homemade incubator. Until then... I'm keeping my fingers crossed

I mean, these eggs are warm. So that is a good sign. I'm hoping a miracle happens!!!

And I'll keep everyone posted

Everyone on here is so knowledgeable and has great advice!

 

[Germaine_11.20]

Here is a hint on how to stop them from pecking the eggs. It may work or it may not. But it did work for me.
Go get some of those plastic easter eggs and fill them with dirt or sand. Make it solid and snap it closed. I put two in each nest box and then I made sure I collected the eggs alot during the day.
The hens would peck the plastic eggs and not find anything good about it. They stopped pecking the real eggs (especially because I would collect them often)
I left the plastic eggs in there for months. Until I never had another pecked "good" egg. Then I took out the plastic eggs and I have never had a problem since.
I did try to find eggs close to their natural color rather than the pink and yellow (I ended up with camoflage eggs, that was as good as it got when I had the problem!)
You may want to go out over the weekend when you are home and collect them.
The reason for more eggs is because it just betters the odds of you getting at least 1-2 to hatch.
Incubators are not that much money though. Maybe you could do extra chores or babysit to get the money. A cheap one (but they work) would cost about 50 dollars.
I asked for one for my birthday and then Christmas. Did not get one so I saved and bought my own. I love it.