BCM x Light Brahma roo

[Rebechenson75]

I'm planning to incubate 12 of my BCM eggs. MY Cockerel is a Light Brahma. She has been laying for over a month now and most of her eggs are fertilized. How long should I wait before attempting to hatch her eggs?

 

[GodLovesU]

I think you should be fine if you want to go ahead and start incubating.

 

[Rebechenson75]

Do you have any recommendations for hatching dark eggs? I also have some Wynadottes that have been laying a couple weeks longer than the BCm. The eggs still seem small. Some are fertilized. Are these safe to incubate yet?

 

[GodLovesU]

I incubate dark eggs the same as others. They are a little harder to candle. Wyandottes lay pretty small eggs. How many hens do you have?

 

[Rebechenson75]

I incubate dark eggs the same as others. They are a little harder to candle. Wyandottes lay pretty small eggs. How many hens do you have?

They really 8 months. 8 ladies and one Gent

 

[GodLovesU]

He should be able to handle that many ladies. Most of the eggs should be fertile. Can you post a picture of the eggs?

 

[Ridgerunner]

A lot of things can go wrong when a pullet first starts to lay. Some you can easily see, some you can't. With all of the things that can possibly go wrong it is surprising how many are perfect.

Especially if a pullet starts laying fairly young the first eggs can be small. I'm not talking about the actual size of the egg, some naturally lay smaller eggs than others. I'm saying small compared to the size she will eventually lay.

If you set her first eggs you can probably get some to hatch. You may even get a good hatch rate, though often you don't. Since the eggs are "small", there is not enough nutrients in there for the chicks to be big. Some of them will be fine but I have a slightly higher mortality rate among the chicks from these smaller eggs.

An example: One time I set 5 eggs from one pullet and 6 from another. Both pullets had only been laying for about 2 weeks when I set the eggs so they were "first eggs". The eggs were different shades of blue so easy to tell apart. Of the 5 eggs, none hatched. Zero. Zilch. None even started to develop. I got 5 healthy chicks out of the other 6 eggs.

I find if I wait about a month after they start laying these problems tend to go away. The pullets tend to correct their initial egg laying problems and the eggs have gotten bigger. They are still smaller than she will eventually lay but much bigger than the first few.