Underlaying

[Diamond dave]

Festive greetings to everyone.

Can anyone tell me how long the time lapse would be before its unsafe to underlay eggs to another pair - I have a pair that have been sitting for 6 days and I want to underlay them with eggs from a stock pair that have just laid but I am not sure if it is safe and I don't want to risk the eggs.

I would be grateful for the benefit of anyones experience on this subject.

Many thanks in advance

 

D.D.

[OLDYELLOW]

normaly a couple of days 6 is a bit long the adopting pair may abandon them or if got a broody hen you could be in luck

[Guest spin cycle]

do you mean 'floating' the eggs ??....i didn't think it mattered at what stage but that the recieving pair had to be at the same stage of sitting

[Guest IB]

I think most pairs will rise after sitting 3 or 4 days overdue, so yes, you risk losing the stock pairs eggs.

 

Try another pair closer to stock pairs dates.

 

Also remember to let stock pair sit for 10 days before removing their eggs, this to allow the stock hen's 'egg-works' to return to normal before you re-start her egg cycle.

[OLDYELLOW]

do you mean 'floating' the eggs ??....i didn't think it mattered at what stage but that the recieving pair had to be at the same stage of sitting

You can get away with 2 to 3 days older but any older they may come off them so no don't have to be same time , best to pair the stock first store eggs so not incubated and float them when fosters lay second egg

[Guest spin cycle]

how long can you store unincubated eggs waiting for a foster pair to lay? with...say an 80% chance of succsess?

[OLDYELLOW]

how long can you store unincubated eggs waiting for a foster pair to lay? with...say an 80% chance of succsess?

as long in a cool room up to two weeks if too warm they'll dry out , and turn them daily

[Guest spin cycle]

as long in a cool room up to two weeks if too warm they'll dry out , and turn them daily

 

 

thats quite long ...thanks i'll give it a try this year as i'd allways thought it was only a few days and hadn't bothered

[OLDYELLOW]

I think recommended times 18 days , as long as fertilized and not started to incubate you'l have no problem The sooner put under foster parents the better as less risk of eggs getting damaged

[JohnQuinn]

Festive greetings to everyone.

Can anyone tell me how long the time lapse would be before its unsafe to underlay eggs to another pair - I have a pair that have been sitting for 6 days and I want to underlay them with eggs from a stock pair that have just laid but I am not sure if it is safe and I don't want to risk the eggs.

I would be grateful for the benefit of anyones experience on this subject.

Many thanks in advance

 

D.D.

 

I do this annually and as has been said, you really are looking for something within 3 days of the eggs you want to float. I've seen me struggle to catch an odd pair, when this happens i usually find that a 3-way swap is available.

Out of the 3 pairs you still only lose 1 pair of eggs. In your case you might find another pair you WANT to keep would be ideal to catch the stock eggs, the eggs from this nest would then be placed under the original foster parents you were hoping to use for the stock pairs eggs.

 

There you are Clear As Mud !!! If you work this out you'll have no problems keeping accurate notes of the changes

[Diamond dave]

Posted Yesterday, 20:31 PM

 

spin cycle, on 30 December 2010 - 20:24 PM, said:

 

how long can you store unincubated eggs waiting for a foster pair to lay? with...say an 80% chance of succsess?

 

 

- OLD Yellow - Am I reading you right and you are saying that you can actually store fresh laid eggs for 18 days..........?

[Diamond dave]

I was hoping that the surrogate pair would continue to sit once they had felt some movement in the eggs. Surely they wouldn't leave the eggs while there is movement inside.

At what stage do the chicks start to move around inside the eggs?

 

D.D.

[Guest IB]

I was hoping that the surrogate pair would continue to sit once they had felt some movement in the eggs. Surely they wouldn't leave the eggs while there is movement inside.

At what stage do the chicks start to move around inside the eggs?

 

D.D.

 

My own experience with this is its just as if a switch had been flicked: hoping to send the bird to a specific race sitting a small youngster, but none of the eggs were the right date. So she's sitting 4/5 days overdue, the eggs are chipping, and the night before I remarked to a clubmate that I could not see the hen over the top of the nest bowl she was sitting so close, only to find next morning that the pair had risen. And nothing I tried (like putting a newly hatched youngster in with them) got them 'sitting' again - that biological switch has flicked, the egg-laying cycle started anew, and for me, that excluded hen from the planned race, because she'd be eggy on race day.

[Diamond dave]

Thanks fellas - some really useful advice there. Given all that I have decided to let them rear the eggs themselves rather than risk losing them.

 

- A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE - MAY ALL YOUR EGGS BE FERTILE.

 

D.D.

[gulkie]

a friend of mine a number of years ago tried an experiment of

removing unicubated eggs and the longest was 7weeks but a

lot of care must be taken i.e turning the eggs every so often

temperature ect