The chances .........?

[rasbull]

I had a pair of eggs that were laid on the 28th Feb and the second on the 2nd March so would be 3 days old from the date of the 2nd egg, but a cock had gone into the box and kicked the parents out. The eggs had gone cold. Instead of chucking them out, I had two spare cocks that have paired up! I thought the eggs are probably ruined now, and took them away so the birds could repair. Instead of chucking I decided to put the eggs under the 2 cocks that have paired up. I went in this morning and the cocks are sitting them!  Firstly is there any chance that these eggs will hatch out?  And secondly if they do, how will it affect the birds if there is no mother? Will the cocks be able to rear the youngsters on there own or does the hen bird produce the milk etc when first hatched? I have nothing to lose by putting the eggs there so thought I would give it a try!

[bird man of meath]

think both proudce milk cock/hens

but think they have to be treading hens 2 proudce

i could be wrong

also think eggs got 2 cold

but u have nothing 2 lose

it will keep them happy looking after eggs 4 awhile

[rasbull]

The eggs had probably been uncovered for anything upto 12 hours but could have been no more than half hour! so should be interesting!

[joe61]

the eggs will be fine if not damaged internally by the fighting that happened to start with, secondly the 2 cocks will sit and rear..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

oh happy days

[bird man of meath]

u might be lucky

but if cocks dont proudce milk

they will be pumping corn into them

that will kill them

just like babys need milk first before real food

[Guest]

If you observe your birds you will notice that when the cock is sitting on newly hatched chicks he does in fact feed, so it has to be crop milk they are geting. Whether there is a difference between cock and hens crop milk I wouldn't like to say. The eggs, at this early stage should be OK for the period that they were left. If it had been after the 7th or 8th day that the eggs were allowed to chill, I wouldn't have held out much hope for them.

[john@formula 1 lofts]

Eggs should hatch fine have often left them 18 hours + When they have gone to a race and they still hatch ok. can not see why 2 cocks could not rear fine as both the cock and hen feed once they hatch so can not see any difference

[rasbull]

I do hope so! I moved the eggs under the foster pair due to wanting more eggs from the parents. The ironic part of this that it was father of the eggs that had kicked the foster parents out of there box!

[greenlands]

Flying natural and sometimes having spare cocks pair together i've let them rear a young bird to race to.There should be no problem providing the eggs haven't chilled and died in shell.Lindsay