When to start incubating pullet eggs ?

[ChickenCanoe]

Here they are.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/black-penedesenca-hatching-eggs.1235753/#post-19829873

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I like to let the kinks work out of the reproductive system coming online before setting eggs. Just feel like it's more of setting myself up for success.

BUT, seeing others toss caution to the wind while I hold it up against the wall and frisk it.. has loosened my perception (a bit) and I realize that life finds a way and for some folk, that's enough.

I basically second the expressions posted by ChickenCanoe and wait until eggs reach their SOP size if there's on stated. One of my focus breeds the Bielefelder, closest thing I can find to an SOP states minimum hatching eggs size of 60g.

This made me curious, so I went to the fridge and weighed eggs plus looked at the calendar to see how long they've been laying for.. for informational purposes since I'm addicted to details.

The Bielefelder have been laying about 3-4 weeks now. My smallest egg in the fridge was 44g and my largest was 70g. However, the 70g egg was laid in the first week and the 44g one later.

So I would say that consistency in size between individual birds would be *preferred* to *maximize* hatch.

While most folks would not suggest incubating 40g eggs with 70g together at the same time.. I have done exactly that when incubating bantams and large fowl concurrently.. Even different colored eggs, causing differing porosity evaporation, blah, blah.. blah.

Sure all that stuff (general "rules") fine tunes things SOME.. Calibrate your thermometer (or verify) every incubation round as this will have the biggest impact, presuming bator is already it in temp stabilized location, set at the hottest part of the day. Fertilization will continue to increase likely reaching 100% before long.

Some of things that are kinda old school reasoning are there with purpose and very often has more to do with function than we may realize, thinking it's about aesthetics.. has been one of the many discoveries I've made..

One of my favorite incubation resources...
Incubation guide

Happy hatching, when you are ready!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

In addition to my concern for hatching eggs closer to the SOP for the breed, there are other concerns about hatching those tiny pullet eggs.
Consider that the size and nutrition in an egg will always be finite. By that I mean unlike live bearers like mammals, when an egg is laid, the eventual embryo will be limited to the space and nutrition contained therein. A mammal's abdomen can expand and the embryo can continue to draw nutrition as needed from the mother's placenta.
That constriction in egg bearers limits the resulting chick in health and size. Also, because all chicken egg shells contain approximately the same amount of calcium so a pullet egg is often thicker than an egg from a mature hen. That will make it more difficult to break free from.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I have always wondered how people weigh them to find out if they are losing enough weight while incubating.

To me the best way to do this is to weight several at a time, not individually. Always weigh the same ones. If you weigh them individually any errors in precision can add up. To minimize that just weigh one time, maybe a dozen at a time.

If you weigh them individually you'll find that different eggs lose moisture at different rates. Each egg is individual, they will have different porosity, some whites may be more runny than others,or other differences. What you are after is average weight loss. There is a fairly wide range of moisture loss where an egg can hatch so if you use average you will get more eggs in that zone where you want them.

BUT, seeing others toss caution to the wind while I hold it up against the wall and frisk it.. has loosened my perception (a bit) and I realize that life finds a way and for some folk, that's enough.

I think you hit it here. What are the individual's goals. I have no idea what MissChicken81's goals are. Canoe has some pretty lofty goals, breeding Penedesenca to the Spanish or Argentine SOP. And paying attention to details like egg size. I don't know if Penedesenca are approved by the APA, probably not if Canoe is breeding to the Spanish or Argentine SOP. Perhaps it's an attempt to develop an American SOP and get them approved. I'd expect that kind of ambition from Canoe.

My goals are totally different. I raise them mostly for meat with eggs a nice side benefit. And I play with genetics. I don't follow a rigid SOP but develop my own goals. For example I wanted a red or black mottled green or blue egg layer. Broodiness was a good trait. So I made one. To keep meat in my freezer I needed to hatch some chicks in February. If I have pullet eggs they go in the incubator. That gets me a jump on raising the next generation of my playing with genetics. That suits my goals.

I'm not arguing with anything you or Canoe said. Those are all valid points if they apply to your goals. Several of them don't apply to mine.

 

[JenEgrrrL]

I have Pullet eggs from girls that have been laying for 2 months. They are weighing in at about 1.9 oz whereas my older ones are about 2-2.3 oz. I was thinking of trying the Pullet eggs bc is love to get the green color. Thought about trying to temper the smaller area they had with doing a dry hatch to maybe increase the space a bit. Has anyone tried that with any success?

 

[LadiesAndJane]

I have Pullet eggs from girls that have been laying for 2 months. They are weighing in at about 1.9 oz whereas my older ones are about 2-2.3 oz. I was thinking of trying the Pullet eggs bc is love to get the green color. Thought about trying to temper the smaller area they had with doing a dry hatch to maybe increase the space a bit. Has anyone tried that with any success?

I know many incubate and hatch pullet eggs without any issues whatsoever. In my recent hatch I had with Silkies, four were malpositioned out of 10, one I was able to save the other three unfortunately did not make it. These were all relatively new layers. Don’t know if that’s the only reason that I had this issue but I had a hatch a few months earlier with older birds that went much better.
I think if they have been laying for at least a month and eggs are relatively normal in size then you should be fine. All you can do is try and see what happens.

 

[JenEgrrrL]

I know many incubate and hatch pullet eggs without any issues whatsoever. In my recent hatch I had with Silkies, four were malpositioned out of 10, one I was able to save the other three unfortunately did not make it. These were all relatively new layers. Don’t know if that’s the only reason that I had this issue but I had a hatch a few months earlier with older birds that went much better.
I think if they have been laying for at least a month and eggs are relatively normal in size then you should be fine. All you can do is try and see what happens.

I balked and went with all my larger eggs to fill the last bator yesterday, so I’ll wait until my 1st batch hatches out and I think I’ll give them a go with a dry hatch. That’ll give them a couple more weeks to bulk up!

I know many incubate and hatch pullet eggs without any issues whatsoever. In my recent hatch I had with Silkies, four were malpositioned out of 10, one I was able to save the other three unfortunately did not make it. These were all relatively new layers. Don’t know if that’s the only reason that I had this issue but I had a hatch a few months earlier with older birds that went much better.
I think if they have been laying for at least a month and eggs are relatively normal in size then you should be fine. All you can do is try and see what happens.

 

[Ridgerunner]

As I mentioned earlier in this thread I sometimes hatch pullet eggs. I find if I wait for a month after they have been laying I do pretty good. Maybe not quite as well as with eggs from hens that have been laying longer but usually pretty good. I do not change my hatching methods and they do well.

It's a shame you didn't stick a few pullet eggs in there to hatch with the others so you'd see for yourself how they do. I almost always have a mix of pullet eggs and hen eggs.

Good luck on this try and your next.

 

[Sally PB]

The birds from the 40-50 gram eggs I hatched never laid large eggs throughout their life.

This is interesting! I was wondering if I set eggs from any of my three Black Australrops, should I pick the ones from my biggest (size) egg layer. Looks like the answer is yes.

Thanks to whomever posted about the scale. I have a cheap one, and I might get one of the Myweigh ones to replace it. And a 10 gram calibration weight.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

This is interesting! I was wondering if I set eggs from any of my three Black Australrops, should I pick the ones from my biggest (size) egg layer. Looks like the answer is yes.

Thanks to whomever posted about the scale. I have a cheap one, and I might get one of the Myweigh ones to replace it. And a 10 gram calibration weight.

A calibration weight is always a good idea. I've had success with fairly cheap pocket gram scales. The ones I've used were more accurate than some kitchen scales.
My favorite scale is a MyWeight KD-8000. Extremely accurate and repeatable. It's capacity is 8 kg. With a large platform so I can weigh a single egg or a full grown rooster.
Another thing to consider with pullet eggs is not only the space available for the embryo and available nutrition but also that they tend to have much thicker shells which will make it harder for a chick that has had limited nutrition to have the strength to break through.
All hens/pullets regardless of age will apply a comparable amount of calcium to form the shell. So when the egg is small - that makes the shell thicker.

Also, regardless of breed or age of the bird, I think it is important to incubate eggs that meet the standard of the breed. Very large eggs for the breed is just as bad as peewees.