Author Topic: Setting eggs question (Read 3195 times)

aaronsundin · « **on:** March 15, 2012, 12:19:04 pm »

Hi everyone , I have 6 bantam eggs recieved by mail yesterday which by 3pm this afternoon will have rested for 24 hours ready to go into the incubator . I didn't get the timing quite right as I have some chicks which hatched this morning and are still drying out . My question is will it be ok to leave the eggs for another day before setting ? I do have a friends incubator here which I could use , but I'd rather use my own . The seller I purchased the eggs from has an excellent feedback rating and says he only mails out the freshest eggs . Thanks in advance , Stefan

OhLaLa · « **Reply #1 on:** March 15, 2012, 12:29:41 pm »

Another days wait will be fine, especially if the eggs are as fresh as claimed. You need to give your hatched chicks priority (a lower hatch rate is usually due to eggs being posted and knocked around).

PS: Due to unfortunate loss of cockerel I've just incubated some eggs that were between 1 day and 3 weeks old, and the hatch rate was fine.

Womble · « **Reply #2 on:** March 15, 2012, 01:00:47 pm »

Yes, if you think about it, 'in the wild' a hen would lay say a dozen eggs over a couple of weeks, and then sit on them all at once, as it were. Obviously the viability will decrease with time, but I shouldn't think another day or two will make any difference.

suziequeue · « **Reply #3 on:** March 15, 2012, 01:20:34 pm »

Quote

rested for 24 hours ready to go into the incubator

I thought the idea was to get them into an incubator (or under a broody) as soon as poosible.

We are planning to pick up some cuckoo maran eggs as soon as one of our sepckledy hens goes broody again. I was imagining a mad dash from Pool Quays to home so minimise the time between incubator and bottom.

Am I being too hasty?

OhLaLa · « **Reply #4 on:** March 15, 2012, 01:53:15 pm »

Quote from: suziequeue on March 15, 2012, 01:20:34 pm

Quote
rested for 24 hours ready to go into the incubator

I thought the idea was to get them into an incubator (or under a broody) as soon as poosible.

We are planning to pick up some cuckoo maran eggs as soon as one of our sepckledy hens goes broody again. I was imagining a mad dash from Pool Quays to home so minimise the time between incubator and bottom.

Am I being too hasty?

Eggs that are posted need to 'rest' for about 24 hours as they will have been knocked around a fair bit getting to their destination.

Your collected eggs will have a much easier journey, but if you are worried that you've gone over too many speed bumps then resting them for 24 hours will do no harm.

suziequeue · « **Reply #5 on:** March 15, 2012, 02:13:57 pm »

Oh right.... well I didn't know that!!!

That's resting them in the warm I presume?

OhLaLa · « **Reply #6 on:** March 15, 2012, 02:24:21 pm »

Room temperature. Not too warm or near a heat source.

suziequeue · « **Reply #7 on:** March 15, 2012, 02:39:48 pm »

Cool
Well that's really useful to know.
We are planning to start hatching chickeys this summer.
Thankyou

chrismahon · « **Reply #8 on:** March 15, 2012, 05:04:54 pm »

Hatching eggs need to go cold for a period before incubation. So they wouldn't hatch if they came out and were incubated immediately. I am reliably informed of that by a very experienced breeder. We store ours in the cellar at 10 -12 degrees, humidity about 70 percent. Have never tested this need for a cold period as all ours have had one.

The important thing Aaronsudin is that the incubator is thouroughly sterilised before the next batch. We tried back-to-back batches and infection built up in the incubator until half the last batch were lost.

I would recommend using an egg sanitiser as well.