Will small eggs under broody hen cause stunted or defective chicks?

[Elfer]

If my hen stays broody, I would like to put the eggs laid by the flock that day under her. But right now, my younger chickens' eggs (Easter Eggers) might not be up to their full size. Is this going to mean the offspring would be defective or stunted, if I place small eggs under? Also, can you tell me if Easter Eggers tend to lay a smaller than ave. size egg? I do not know the age of most of these chickens, as bought some of them from someone thinning their flock.

If I want the hen to hatch some that were laid from more than a 1 day period, how do I best do that? Can I get some from out of the fridge, or would it be best to say, gather eggs from today and keep room temp and add to tomorrow's eggs, then put all those under at one time? Or what i did in past- put today's under her, then tomorrow put those under, and let hatch over 2 -3 day period? What is a max. amount to put under a broody, without stressing her?

 

[Ridgerunner]

How long have they been laying? I'm assuming you are talking about pullet eggs. When a pullet starts laying she sometimes doesn't get everything right. That's why you can get such a variety of weird eggs when they first start. For an egg to hatch about everything about that egg has to be right, not just the stuff you see. A lot of pullets get it right from the start but some take a couple of weeks or so to work out all the kinks and bugs in their internal egg making factory.

When they start laying the eggs are pretty small. They will get bigger the longer they lay. I've hatched pullet eggs before, I usually do every year. A lot of the time they will hatch. If they hatch the chicks are generally fine. But I do not usually get as good a hatch rate with pullet eggs as I do with eggs from older hens. The chicks that hatch are usually fine. I hardly ever have any chick die that i hatch but if it does die it was probably from a pullet egg. The vast majority of chicks that hatch from pullet eggs do fine, I don't want to make it sound like it is a sure death. It's not. But because the egg is small it does not have enough nutrients to grow a big chick. A big chick would not fit in that small shell anyway.

I find that if the pullet has been laying at least a month these problems pretty much go away. If the pullets have been laying at least a month you should not have any issues. If it is less than a month you could have some but a lot of eggs will still hatch and the chicks will probably do OK.

An Easter Egger is not a breed. There are no standards or tendencies at all. There are no breed requirements. I've had EE's that lay some really large eggs. I've had EE's that lay fairly small eggs. I cannot say that EE's typically lat smaller eggs because that has not been my experience, but it is certainly possible that you have some that do.

I regularly store eggs at room temperature for about a week before I put them in the incubator or under a broody. If you can store them in a steady temperature, preferably a bit cooler, away from any vents where air could blow on them, out of direct sunlight so they don't heat up, and you turn them they will easily last a week. They should be stored in an egg carton or something similar with the pointy side down to keep the air cell at the top or lay them flat. The important thing is to not store them pointy side up.

By turning, put a mark on one side or different marks on opposite sides so you can tell when they have been turned right. You might put an X on one side and an O the other. Or one side black and the other side blue. If they are pointy side down they need to be moved from one side to the other through a 90 degree turn. If they are laying flat turn the egg totally over. They should be turned at least three times a day, more often is a little better but it doesn't make that much difference.

I like to start them all at the same time. That will be less stressful to you and the hen than staggering the start.

Hens and eggs come in different sizes. A bantam may have trouble covering more than four full sized eggs. Who knows how many bantam eggs a full sized hen can cover, probably more than two dozen. There is no set number of eggs a hen can cover. I typically give a hen 12 eggs the size she normally lays but I once gave a hen only 10 because I didn't think she was comfortable with 12. In Georgia this time of the year I'd go with 10 to 12.

 

[Elfer]

Thanks; you covered everything. They've all been laying at least 2 mo. Looks like I got at least 7 eggs today, I'll save at room temp. and see what I get tomorrow to choose from.

The one that slept in a nesting box last night is there tonight, so I'll see if she's still serious tomorrow. She was my last Mama, and did a good job, but not long ago, she set a couple of days, and changed her mind.

Another hen is fluffed up today. It seems when I have one go broody, another wants babies. also. But I learned about putting in a wire cage off the ground to break broodiness, and that worked for when I didn't want chicks, yet. Right now, it would be OK, though.

Going to try to fix a separate pen to transfer Mamas to set/hatch/raise chicks in, as the other chickens get scared to lay in the nesting boxes next to these very defensive Mamas.