Will small eggs incubate?

[greenchickeneer]

Hello everybody. I am new to the chicken world. We live in the mountains east of Albuquerque, NM. We have kind of impulsively decided to hatch our own chickens. We have a pretty nice coop (we are still working on it a little, but we have some time). My mom had chickens when she was young, so we are not totally in the dark, but we have no first hand experience.
I have a friend with young chickens who are still yielding eggs not bigger than pingpog balls. We need some eggs to incubate seeing as that our first crop seems to be overcome by bacteria. I was wondering if these little eggs can hatch healthy chicks.

 

[PandoraTaylor]

from Alaska

I am sure you will meet interesting people and find all kinds of information here.

Have a wonderful day.

 

[Wooden_Pony]

No, you should not incubate small pullet eggs. They do not offer enough room for a chick to grow. You need to give them several more weeks before incubating them. Good luck on your next go at hatching!!

and

 

[Ridgerunner]

Welcome to the forum. Glad you re here.

How old are the young chickens and what breed are they? Some chickens will never lay large eggs. I agree you should not try to hatch small pullet eggs since the hatch rate and survivability is not great, but it would help to know a bit more.

Do you know why your first hatch was overcome by bacteria? These sites may help you have a better hatch next time.

Texas A&M Incubation site
http://gallus.tamu.edu/Extension publications/b6092.pdf

Mississippi State – Hatching Quality Chicks
http://www.poultry.msstate.edu/extension/pdf/hatching_chicks.pdf

Mississippi State Incubation Troubleshooting
http://www.poultry.msstate.edu/extension/pdf/troubleshooting_incubation.pdf

Good luck!!!

 

[Mahonri]

wow... I'd heard that you could incubate pullet eggs...

Guess I'll take the salmon faverolles out of the mix for my bator.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Quote:
You can incubate pullet eggs, but you will probably get lower hatch rates and a higher possibility of deformed chicks. Some may be OK. As you probably know there are few hard and fast rules with anything chicken. Most of the advice on here is to improve your odds, not say that something will or will not definitely happen.

How's that for using a lot of weasel words?

 

[evonne]

i hatched my leghorns first egg i found... out of 15 i started with, 6 started to develope and grew healthy.. they are driving me nuts and are now running in the back yard with the big chickens.. they hatched 10/29....

a friend incubated some more of her eggs and some of my EE's first eggs.. he had a pretty good hatch rate too...

it is possible, they just say that the chicks may not be as healthy and thrive as well.... or like someone else said maybe the egg isn't big enough for them....

and could it be that your friends eggs are small becasue of the breed?? like they said, to give you a good answer we need more info...

you'll get lots of opinions.. and you'll have to figure out what works best for you...
good luck!!!!!

 

[Akane]

I had someone ship me all pullet eggs and with a filled incubator of bantam eggs (it holds 42 standard) I got 2 chicks which I helped out. Majority quit between day 14 and 19. The rest were unable to position for hatching. Then there's a higher chance for deformed chicks so you better be prepared to cull. Sometimes it works fine but I really don't find it worth it. Might as well wait a couple weeks.

If the hens have been laying for months then most of their eggs are probably at a large enough size they can be set and the hens will not lay too much larger. If they are still all laying much smaller eggs than the breed would months after they start laying I would consider there might be something wrong with the flock. Either illness or they aren't getting everything they need to make eggs. If it's only been weeks give them a few more weeks and then collect eggs for incubating.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I've heard like others that the pullet eggs are too small for the chick to develop properly and to turn. Something else I'd be concerned with is that a lot of pullets just coming into lay still try to get away from the rooster. It takes them a while to learn to accept the rooster so there is a better chance the eggs are not fertile to start with. That may be why so many pullet eggs don't even start to develop. Maybe that is why only 6 of Evonne's 15 eggs started to develop? You can hatch pullet eggs and you will probably get some to hatch and develop properly, but I just think it is better to wait to improve your odds of success.

 

[greenchickeneer]

Thank everyone for your advise. Sounds like we don't have to wait too long for the eggs to get up to normal size. We shall wait and try again. Thanks again!!!!