found robin's egg

[annie3001]

hello.
my boss found a robins egg on the ground. she brought it in her house and put a heat source lamp on it. wrapped it also with a towel. can she hatch this? she asked me, thinking i might know. i dont. so i am coming here for help. she did not find a nest in sight, nor a robin flying about. what are your thoughts? thanks in advance.

 

[equine623]

That's a tough question - and honestly it depends. How long was it on the ground, what was the temperature, was it pushed from a nest by a parent bird or did a predator take it, at what stage of development is it. Chances are slim it will hatch. And if by some miracle it does, trying to raise a single newly hatched bird is hard enough for an expert rehabber...people are just too clumsy and big compared to a mama bird. I'm a vet tech and a rehabber and a soft heart and even I would say probably not gonna happen. Sorry

 

[taraann81]

I don't thinks its a tough question. An egg wrapped in a towel and placed under a heat lamp won't hatch,, I would say with that set up 99% chance it will not hatch. As the above poster said they would be har to raise/feed and probably more humane to not incubate it at all.

 

[Akane]

People have hatched chicken eggs under a single light bulb. It can happen. Odds are just much much lower than using some type of incubator even if it's the homemade kind using a small styrofoam cooler and lightbulb.

 

[taraann81]

Quote:
Right! Thats why I didn't say it as impossible, just a VERY tiny chance of success!

 

[sunny & the 5 egg layers]

Tell your boss not to give up on the egg! Miricales do happen!

 

[taraann81]

I look at it differently. Right now the bird(assuming its fertile) inside that egg is not suffering. Given the difficulty of raising any just hatched bird(even people who hand raise pet birds usually don't pull the chicks untill they around 2 weeks old) the chances of that newly hatched robin(assuming, it hatches) surviving are slim. So it hatches and then either aspirates, starves or dies from a lack of vitamins or malnutrition. I think the most humane thing for the robins eggs is to either find a robins nest... put it back and hope for the best, or just let it be.