Will cold eggs still hatch?

Bookworm chick

Songster
10 Years
May 27, 2009
227
0
109
Salem County, NJ
The broody has been setting on them for one week. Yesterday she got back on the wrong nest (where another hen had laid one egg) apparently after her daily constitutional. This happened sometime in the afternoon. The eggs were completely cool. I put her back on her nest and she settled in and rearranged her eggs while "talking" to them. Do they still have a chance of hatching? I intend to keep a really close eye on her now. This has never happened before and I was bothered by it because I had bought these hatching eggs. I did split up the dozen hatching eggs between this broody and another. Sort of not putting all my eggs in the same basket?
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I am new to hatching, my first hatch was YESTERDAY, but I can tell you what I experienced.

My hen sat on the wrong nest more than a few times. Another want -to-be broody who just can't it together kept dividing the eggs into two nests. My girl, not being able to sit on them all would just pick one and the others were left to cool. I put those eggs back under her so many times I lost count. Now, I don't know how long they were left unattended but I had 7 of 12 hatch yesterday. Number 8 just hatched in my homemade incubator. He was definately cold to the touch when I found him 3 days ago. I was gone all day and came home to find Mama on all the eggs except him/her. I put him in the incubator and crossed my fingers and around 6am today... ta-da, he/she's wet and chirppy!!

So, I would say, see what happens. You can always candle now and again later to see how they are doing.

Good luck! Once you see those cute little flufffy butts you'll be hooked on hatching. Let us know how things are going.
 
So far you are doing it all right.. one thing I would not do is candle.. the eggs are getting enough (or too much) time out of the heat already.. I would not add to it by candling.. that might just be the straw that broke the camel's back..
 
So glad I read this! Yesterday my hens went broody. So I took the days worth of eggs and divided them between the two broodies (about 10 eggs total, 5 under each broody). Both hens went out for their daily eat/drink/relieve themselves trip and came back to the wrong nest. One went to the other hens eggs, and the other hen went to nest on a couple of golf balls
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Well, I took all of the golf balls out of the coop nests and put all the cold eggs under the golf ball hatching hen.
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Today is day two of incubation. Hope they hatch! They probably won't though...my roosters seem to be more hen then rooster. One crows (the other does not) and I have never seen them mount a hen.
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So glad I read this! Yesterday my hens went broody. So I took the days worth of eggs and divided them between the two broodies (about 10 eggs total, 5 under each broody). Both hens went out for their daily eat/drink/relieve themselves trip and came back to the wrong nest. One went to the other hens eggs, and the other hen went to nest on a couple of golf balls
he.gif
Well, I took all of the golf balls out of the coop nests and put all the cold eggs under the golf ball hatching hen.
fl.gif
Today is day two of incubation. Hope they hatch! They probably won't though...my roosters seem to be more hen then rooster. One crows (the other does not) and I have never seen them mount a hen.
idunno.gif
This is my first time ever having a broody hen try and hatch eggs. So I am still very new to the whole process. I have no incubator, accept for the hens themselves
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