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- #11
- May 3, 2016
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I have one rooster. I picked the girls that I want to cross breed. So they have been seperate for a few days already with him but were in the entire flock with him prior. I figured by putting him in with just those 10 he will be breeding them more likely than when he is in with the entire flockYes, it is exposed surface area. The more wet surface area you have the more water will evaporate and the higher your humidity will be. This may be more important during lockdown than regular incubation.
If you cut the sponge into small pieces and they are submerged they have not increased your surface area. If you lay a sponge flat in there and it is not sticking up you have not increased your surface area. But if you position a sponge, paper towel, or face cloth so it can wick water out of your reservoir you can increase wet surface area. I don't know what yours looks like so I don't have specific suggestions on exactly how to do it. By increasing surface area the water will evaporate faster so keep on top of preventing the reservoir going dry.
I don't know your specific details. If you have more than one rooster you need to separate them from the one you do not want for about 4 weeks before collecting eggs. The sperm can sometimes last that long.
An egg takes about 25 hours or so to go through the hen's internal egg making factory. It can only be fertilized during the first few minutes of that journey. That means if a mating takes place on a Monday, Monday's egg is not fertile from that mating. It can't be. Tuesday's egg might or might not be, depending in when it is laid and when the mating takes place. I would not count on it. Wednesday's egg should be fertile.
That should work great. The ideal temperature to store them is around 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Too cold would be around freezing. I store my eggs warmer than that and they do fine.
The higher the humidity the better to reduce moisture loss while saving them for incubation. But you are storing them for less than a week. That will not present any problems for you. To me you are doing better than I do.
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