Allen wrote:
"I marked my eggs which my hen has not started to sit on. She's an unknown quantity in this. She now has 2 eggs in the nest. I understand that if she's going to brood she'll wait till she has the right number of eggs. But the question is will she start to turn the eggs before she does this? And if this is the case that hen's turn eggs before setting and if they don't turn the eggs, then either they aren't fertile or she's not going to set????
I remind you I have very limited patience. "
I remind you I have very limited patience. "
*** 15 ***
Hi Allen:
The short answer is "Yes" the hen "turns" her eggs before she has a full clutch and "decides" to incubate.
As to your patience you will just have to adjust as there is little (albeit some...) you can do to affect the process.
*** 15 ***
The second part of your question is a bit more complicated.
"... if they don't turn the eggs, then either they aren't fertile or she's not going to set????"
If there is a rooster, or there has been a rooster in the flock within previous 10-14 days of laying the probability of fertility is very high unless there was (is) a very unbalanced male to female ratio - for argument sake let's say 1 male and 40 females -in which case there might be a relatively high percentage of infertile eggs.
In any event there is little or no relationship between turning or not turning eggs, egg fertility or propensity to set (incubate, "go broody").
Fertility is controlled by the presence of viable males, Incubation is a function of changes in hormone composition and ratios. These changes are brought about by photoperiod - responsible for about 97-99.999% of the changes. A small contribution may be made by the presence of sperm (androgen) in the oviduct, however, the presence of broodiness and tendency to incubate among all female flocks argues strongly for light being the causative factor.
Happy Chicken Keeping!
Prof.
*** 30 ***
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