Hi Sandie: WOW, you have a lot going on! I think what you need to do is wait it out. Things you probably already know: An egg can stay good for up to 2 weeks so theoretically a hen can lay up to 2 dozen eggs before she has to start incubating them. In real life it's more like 10 or 12 eggs. Once she starts all the eggs will hatch about the same time in approximately 21 days. If she gets too many donated eggs she will not be able to cover them and they will die. Is your OEG a bantam? If this is the case I don't think she can hatch a lot of standard size eggs. She would have a hard time keeping them warm.
You state that only 4 in the incubator look good. What do you mean by that? Don't leave them in there for more than 23 days. Bad eggs can explode. Candling at late stages may only show a solid dark mass even if there is a live chick in there. Listening to the egg is a better method. You can hear the peeps.
A chick can survive for 3 days without eating. The hen, if she is a good mother, will take them to find food and water as soon as a number of eggs hatch. The eggs that don't hatch on time are out of luck, so to speak.
Ol' George
--- In CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com, "sjgoldstein_2000" <sandiejg@...> wrote:
>
> I got a english game chicken gone broody, and she's sitting on one egg, and then I added 4. Have one other chicken laying eggs on her pile, and now I have 12, Now the one that is laying is a larger chicken, and seems like she's been laying as long as she's been sitting, and I keep pulling off eggs and putting in an incubator..........now I have 13 eggs there give or take, Only 4 look good..........Yesterday was the first day she should have had a baby....nothing. Nothing so far today.
>
> I keep trying to check her eggs with a light but so far haven't caught her off the nest unless I don't have a light.
>
> I have never done this before.............hatched chicken eggs.. When do they first start eating on their own..........first day or a day or so after. so I have close to 25 eggs...........all together. being hatched.........give or take.......
>
CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com
No comments:
Post a Comment