Urgent! Please help decide: set eggs now or wait??

[SeaChick]

My DD ("horsefeathers" here) and I have been waiting for one of our hens to go broody so we could let her hatch eggs. A first for us!!!

She's broody, set up in her broody cage, and we ordered eggs from BYC-ers. We ordered three types, from 3 different people. The first box arrived yesterday. the second today. I just emailed about the 3rd, and she didn't even send it till today. So it won't arrive till maybe Tuesday

Should we just forget about those eggs (they're Blue Orps which DD was really excited about) and set the others tonight? I suspect we should, since wont the viability of those, collected earlier this week, diminish greatly if we wait?

Please help!! Advise!! We are newbies and want this to go right.

Thanks!
Stacey

 

[dun chick]

If the eggs will be older than 7 days then I would go ahead with the ones you have under her. Since the eggs were just sent today, you probally won't get them to at least monday. Is this her first time?

 

[adrian]

It's too bad you don't have an incubator around (assuming that you don't). You could set the least precious eggs in an incubator and the more precious ones under a hen... So you'd possibly get both...

My condolences to you. I hope you figure something out. The eggs' age is an important factor.

 

[SeaChick]

Yes, her first time. The other eggs aren't under her yet- I was waiting.... hoping they'd all be here today to set at once.

I think some of the others were colected maybe Sunday or Monday.. so they would be at least 7 days before the Blue Orps arrived.

Such a disappointment. We spent a LOT of money for this "collection" and DD carefully selected her 3 breeds.

So- it seems like I should put the other 2 sets under her tonight and just forget about the Blue Orps, huh?. Maybe I can find someone to give them to, it seems such a shame to waste them. Or eat them. Expensive omelet

 

[KellyHM]

So why don't you spend the extra $40 on an incubator? If she's a first-time broody there's a chance she won't set the whole time anyways and then you'll need a bator to finish off the eggs she has.

 

[SeaChick]

The blue orps were pretty important to DD.... but I certainly dont want to risk losing the other two sets by waiting. We dont have an incubator. What a bummer!!!!!!!

 

[KellyHM]

Just buy a styrofoam bator...they're only $40.

 

[SeaChick]

Well, I have no place local to buy an incubator, plus she is an incredibly stubborn broody. She was broody ALL last summer. Plus the whole idea was to let the hen do it.... unless its an emergency situation I dont want to do the incubator thing. I am living in the middle of a house renovation with no kitchen, washing dishes in the bathtub, and I just would prefer not to take on a whole new project with learning curve, like incubator hatching, UNLESS of course its an emergency and our broody abandons the eggs. The, OF COURSE we'd take over

 

[matthew1985]

thats tuff sorry

 

[Dirt Road]

How many eggs of each variety are you going to have? I personally do not believe the eggs you already have will be lost by waiting a couple of extra days. Just my own personal opinion. I've had LOTS of eggs hatch that were older than two weeks. I don't even consider them questionable until 3 weeks or beyond. That said, you have no guarantee that the PO will deliver them in a hurry. You could wait about 48 hours to set the ones you have, then when the others arrive if they are only a day or two behind put them under her after they set for a few hours. Assuming that some hatch from both the early and later eggs, pull the first chicks as soon as they are dried off, and keep them in a brooder till the rest hatch. As soon as the second batch have hatched, put the older chicks back under her. That will work fine as long as the chicks are not over 2 or 3 days apart.

Jim