Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
ALMOST BEEKEEPING - RELATED TOPICS => FARMING & COUNTRY LIFE => Topic started by: GSF on August 17, 2016, 09:06:54 am
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I know the rule of thumb for chicks to hatch from under a broody hen is 21 days. I've read about hens leaving the nest for hours, sometimes all day and they'd still hatch. I read someone said it was 12 degrees and their eggs was very cold, but they still hatched.
Another thing of interest I read was to do with the hatch being prolong because of absence from the nest. We know that a broody hen will "take care of her business" but these weren't the case. Folks seem to think that if the hen has been off the nest for a total of X number of hours then you can add X number of hours to the hatch date.
That being said, this is day 27 and the eggs don't stink so I'm wondering if all is well. I haven't candled them. Has anyone had this many days pass and they still hatched? Yes, they are fertile. Yes, I put them under her all at once on the same day.
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I usually give the broody hen some golf balls and hatch the eggs in the incubator. The instincts to be a good mother seem to have been bred out of most of them. Whenever a broody hen hides and manages to raise a clutch of chicks, I let her and keep her around as long as I can, but most just waste the eggs. Still they provide better care of chicks than a heat lamp... so I hatch them for them and let them raise them. They do look a bit frazzled when you give 30 or 40 chicks to one hen though...
As far as time, if the temperature is low it can take a bit longer. But if they haven't emerged by 24 days, I don't think they will.
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Most of mine are hatching on the 20th day and some on the 21st day. By the 22nd/23rd days, They are not going to hatch and I throw them away. I will give them a little shake. If you hear liquid, it is bad. If you hear a peep (which you will if you shake and they are good) I wait a bit more. I had one sit for twenty days and none hatched and I put more under her and 21 days later they hatched. The chicken sat over 40 something days.
Unless you have an auto turning incubator it is a lot of work turning the eggs 3 times a day.
I have had chickens make mistakes and end up on the wrong eggs and it only went 100% bad one time. I do find that my hatch rate is only about 50% due to verious reasons. I do my eggs right where all the other chickens lay and so sometimes they break one fighting over the nest and I have to check every day and take the new eggs out of the nest so I do mark my eggs for babies pretty well so I can tell the differrance.
I would put more eggs under the chicken if I wanted babies. When I incubated I only had about a 50 percent hatch rate also, so I am no expert and can only give my experiances.
Good luck
gww
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We used golf balls to make sure she was going to take. I'm almost convinced that they aren't going to hatch, especially after this long of a period. I haven't thought of a little shake. I'll tell that to my wife, in case it breaks..,
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> this is day 27
I would give up.
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Update - No go. It seems that 3 of the 10 eggs went missing, 6 weren't fertilized, and one was a bloody soup. They "should" have been fertile.