Candling BCM Eggs...

[BastyPutt]

They were all under her last I checked. She really flattens herself out...but she is still not a very big hen and I am concerned she will get up and not have them covered when she returns. She is barely covering them...

Yeah that's too many. She could certainly do it, but you run a risk of space being taken up by non viable eggs AND ultimately if they do hatch, that's a lot of chicks to look after.

Id candle and keep 6 under her and put the remainder in the incu

 

[Heartsopenwide]

Yeah that's too many. She could certainly do it, but you run a risk of space being taken up by non viable eggs AND ultimately if they do hatch, that's a lot of chicks to look after.

Id candle and keep 6 under her and put the remainder in the incu

Thanks. I'll candle tonight and see how many left are worth keeping. I have been having a hard time getting the humidity right on my incubator. I have two readings and they both keep falling below 40%

 

[BastyPutt]

Thanks. I'll candle tonight and see how many left are worth keeping. I have been having a hard time getting the humidity right on my incubator. I have two readings and they both keep falling below 40%

30 to 50 is usually fine. A lot of folks are just going with ambient humidity these days in the incubator. Some interesting reads out there.

 

[Heartsopenwide]

30 to 50 is usually fine. A lot of folks are just going with ambient humidity these days in the incubator. Some interesting reads out there.

I am interested in dry hatching, but makes me nervous. It is pretty humid where I live, but was only 22% when I tried just turning it on and leaving it. I'll aim for 30%.

 

[BastyPutt]

I am interested in dry hatching, but makes me nervous. It is pretty humid where I live, but was only 22% when I tried just turning it on and leaving it. I'll aim for 30%.

I think you'll be totally safe there. I have some Seramas almost on lockdown and have been running 20 to 30 as a test. Everything looks great so far with nice air sacs.

 

[Heartsopenwide]

So we are down to 12 eggs from 17. One disappeared, and three were obviously not fertilized. One, she took out of the nest. I heard her clucking like she laid an egg. She had the egg about 2 feet from the nest and partially cracked. Bloody and a embryo inside. Why would she do this? I know people say they know what are the bad eggs, but there were several eggs not fertilized, and this one had a embryo.

On that note. I left her with the 12 for now. Many dark ones, and a few questionable. Wish these eggs were not so darn hard to candle.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I know people say they know what are the bad eggs, but there were several eggs not fertilized, and this one had a embryo.

I'm not one that says that. I can't recall ever having a broody hen kick an egg out, good egg or bad, but my nests have fairly high lips so it would be hard for them to kick an egg out when turning them. I've read the stories where a hen has kicked the same egg out a few times when someone put it back under her. I've read the stories like yours where the egg that was kicked out was viable.

My take on that is that we all have unique situations, we are not all identical. The broody hens are different, the nests are different, and we don't see what was going on when the egg got kicked out. Maybe it was an accident when the broody was rearranging the eggs, maybe something happened when another hen tried to lay an egg in the broody's clutch, maybe the broody was fighting off an egg eating predator. Maybe a broody did reject a certain egg for whatever reason. I don't know what happened in your situation but I tend to reject these blanket statements that imply every chicken in the world does the identical thing for the same identical reason. To me that does not fit reality.

 

[gimmie birdies]

I had really dark BCM eggs, I could not see into the egg until day 10, even then, it was only the air cell.

 

[BastyPutt]

I'm not one that says that.

Agreed

I believe a hen has some intuition, but certainly not a super heightened sense of internal egg candling sonar ability.

You will see then throw out cracked eggs often, but then that same hen will break an egg mid-brood and leave it.

Seems like they will get it in there heads to get rid of an egg for whatever reason and then that is what they do.