Hatching Older Eggs? (Hen and/or Incubator)

[Wonderling]

If anyone has hatched some older eggs I'd love some feedback about your experiences.

I've been saving up eggs since the day I gave the rooster away (aggressive behavior), googled it and it said a hen can still be laying fertile eggs for up to 4 weeks after the rooster is gone. I was planning to put all the eggs in the incubator and not worry about low hatch rates.

I got the incubator and rather than getting to put the eggs in I had to take away the eggs my Buff Orphington was brooding because apparently instinct only told her to sit on eggs and the second they show signs of hatching she would kick them out of the nest or start to peck at the egg. Long story short, my incubator is currently in use for a few more days. Have 3 chicks in a brooder, 1 in the bator that just hatched, and 2 more eggs I'll candle when I take the chick out today.

Coco, my silkie/polish cross hatched and raised up that last batch of chicks (or should I say raptors? ) and decided it was time for another round. Because I'm a monster, I gave her the 6 oldest eggs I'd saved up with my logic being that they were the most likely to be fertile even though they are from 7/19-7/24 and I gave them to her on 8/7.

I have a couple ideas and I'd like to get some input on how to go about this.
Should I leave the old eggs I gave her and let her try to hatch them? Or take them once the incubator is free and then give her new eggs I can get locally? I plan to also add the other older eggs I have to the incubator when it's free in probably 2 days, those eggs will be from 7/25-8/10ish.

Other than low hatch rates is there anything else I should keep in mind for the old eggs? I'm assuming I just won't have that many actually develop, or will I have more quitters along the way?
Or is this old egg business all complete foolishness and I should just get some local eggs to hatch?

I am actually new to incubating and chickening in general. Chickening? Is that a word, it should be. We had some hens we raised as chicks from the feed store when I was younger but we just collected eggs and refilled their food/water, it was really hands off.

 

[sourland]

Candle the eggs and then make your decision. The 10 day old cut off point in my experience is rather unrealistic. In many cases it takes a broody hen far longer than that to complete and then set on a clutch. A lot has to do with how eggs are maintained prior to incubation. Moderate temp., humidity, and daily turning are essential.

 

[raeleigh26]

Candle the eggs and then make your decision. The 10 day old cut off point in my experience is rather unrealistic. In many cases it takes a broody hen far longer than that to complete and then set on a clutch. A lot has to do with how eggs are maintained prior to incubation. Moderate temp., humidity, and daily turning are essential.

Yup. That. I've had eggs hatch that were the oldest of a 17 day gather, while some that were only 2 days old quit early.
I think a lot of it is how they're stored (though a broody hen in August doesn't maintain a cool temp) and even genetics, as well as just the individual egg.

There are far too many variables to account for. Just try to control the ones you can, put the eggs where it works best, and be happy with what hatches.

 

[Wonderling]

Thanks for the input. I'm going to leave the eggs under her that I gave her and I'm putting the rest in the incubator today so even if none of her's hatch I can probably sneak a couple chicks under her when the time is right (if any hatch that is) since she's quick to accept new babies I learned last time.

 

[MROO]

You just gave me the courage to start a late hatch with some older eggs I've been holding. Gee, Thanks ... I think!

 

[Wonderling]

You just gave me the courage to start a late hatch with some older eggs I've been holding. Gee, Thanks ... I think!

I'd love to hear how it goes. I'm assuming I'll just have low hatch rates with mine. Odds are probably lower too since I don't have a rooster anymore and any fertility is based on whatever my hen had stored up for the couple weeks after he left. I was thinking about posting an article about how it goes but I'm not sure yet since I'm still pretty new to all this.

 

[MROO]

I'd love to hear how it goes. I'm assuming I'll just have low hatch rates with mine. Odds are probably lower too since I don't have a rooster anymore and any fertility is based on whatever my hen had stored up for the couple weeks after he left. I was thinking about posting an article about how it goes but I'm not sure yet since I'm still pretty new to all this.

Just start a thread under "Hatching." It's easier - both for you and for others who want to chime in or follow along. That's really the better forum for it, anyway. The article would be more for writing it all up when your experiment is done, so others can learn from what worked and what didn't. That's more what the article section is for, anyway.
I think of it this way - Threads are for conversations and ongoing processes/experiments. The Articles section is more for "finished" things like a news article, or the paper you once had to write up on your Physics experiment, Science Fair project ... or the dreaded Summer Book Report!

 

[Wonderling]

Just start a thread under "Hatching." It's easier - both for you and for others who want to chime in or follow along. That's really the better forum for it, anyway. The article would be more for writing it all up when your experiment is done, so others can learn from what worked and what didn't. That's more what the article section is for, anyway.
I think of it this way - Threads are for conversations and ongoing processes/experiments. The Articles section is more for "finished" things like a news article, or the paper you once had to write up on your Physics experiment, Science Fair project ... or the dreaded Summer Book Report!

Thanks, I'll have to start a thread when I get around to it...I thought about using this thread but it won't let me edit the first post so I'll probably start a new one in the "Hatch-along" sub-forum.

 

[aart]

Just start a thread under "Hatching."

This thread is in 'Hatching'...maybe it got moved after @MROO's post?

 

[Wonderling]

Update: I don't seem to have the ability to edit the original post to add this so I'll just post this here rather than start a new thread. Plus I doubt I'll be posting much more other than a couple pictures later if I remember.

From the beginning 17 eggs (6 under the hen and 11 in incubator), 2 remain; 1 from under the hen and 1 from the incubator group. None of the others started to develop and were likely just not fertile or too old. Both are in the incubator, the one from under the hen was moved into the incubator on day 18 since the hen was having some poopoo issues (she's better now). The one from the hen just hatched last night and the second has now pipped (they are chirping to each other, so cute).

The one that hatched was laid on 7/25 and the one other is from 7/27. Both eggs were exactly 2 weeks old when they began incubation, the 7/25 egg under the hen on 8/7 and the 7/27 egg in the incubator 2 days later. The hen's last contact with the big rooster was 7/14 and the Polish rooster 7/16, I doubt the chance of a polish cross for a number of reasons though. Thus my adventure of old egg hatching has just about reached it's conclusion.