What to do when no one wants to sit

nickori

Chirping
Nov 13, 2008
74
17
94
Temple
I have 18 hens and one rooster. The girls are two now. Still laying beautiful eggs, though have slowed over the winter months. They are Red Sex links. Anyway, I have thought of hatching some of my own eggs and I know this sounds stupid, but , none of the girls seem interested in sitting on eggs. What is a good incubator to buy that is not difficult to operate?
How long can eggs sit in the nest before the chances of hatching them diminishes? I dont see as much activity between hen and rooster as I did when he was a year old and feeling his oats. Should I still be able to gather some fertilized eggs from this bunch? sorry for the questions. This forum is amazing. So much good information.
Nicki
 
Depends how much you want to spend. Usually the cheap hovabator or little giant is recommended. I have both of those and they work fine. The temp knob on the lg is a little more touchy and I prefer the extra depth to the base of the hovabator. For a little more money the hovabator genesis 1588 gets mentioned alot.

How long eggs can sit would probably depend on temp. If it's really hot or cold not long. The best temp is 60s F and then it's suggested to set them within a week. Definitely not more than 10days or hatching rate goes down.
 
What are the odds of them hatching in an ideal environment with the hens and rooster being 2. Does the age of the hen or rooster matter

Nicki..New to the forum. Home to chickens, horses, dogs, cats and anything else that needs a home.
 
Your rooster is probably still doing fine as far as taking care of business goes. If in doubt about them being fertile, check a few. Problem to me seems to be that you have a breed of hens not known for going broody. They've been developed to produce alot of eggs and the broodiness has been bred right out of them.
With the sex links, you're probably going to need an incubator and Akane gave you good advice on that.
 

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