Floating Eggs

[Guest TAMMY_1]

What is the maximum difference in days you would consider floating eggs under foster birds from the pair that laid ? I never go more than 2 or 3 at the very most but have you went longer and have them rear okay ?

[Guest geordiejen]

i try and get the eggs to be floated a few days before the sitters lay,eggs will keep good if kept in the house and are turned twice a day however after a week the chances of them hatching is reduced.

[gulkie]

i make it a max 2 days

[Guest TAMMY_1]

i try and get the eggs to be floated a few days before the sitters lay,eggs will keep good if kept in the house and are turned twice a day however after a week the chances of them hatching is reduced.

we tried this once but we never got any to hatch but there were posts on here a while back where members said they kept eggs for several weeks and still managed to hatch them :emoticon-0138-thinking:

[Guest IB]

I float eggs all the time.

 

Early = up to 5 days, common fear is no crop milk, but the process starts as soon as birds start sitting, and I've never had youngsters hatch without it;

 

Late is trickier, and I would not go beyond 3 days. This is because I've come a cropper between days 4 & 5, the hen was sitting on chipping egg on 4th Night, on 5th Morning she had risen, both of them were hunkered down in the box, and even introducing a youngster into their bowl couldn't stop them going down on eggs again.

[Guest BRYANBROCK]

we tried this once but we never got any to hatch but there were posts on here a while back where members said they kept eggs for several weeks and still managed to hatch them :emoticon-0138-thinking:

 

Think would have to see that to beleive it mind you everything is possible so they say

And i would like to know where they kept them

[Guest geordiejen]

the sooner the egs are under the better.ive also tried putting new eggs under a pair that have been sitting a week or so but they died because the fosters didnt feed them.and on the other hand ive put eggs under 2 cock birds that paired up and they both reared two clutches for me.i also have a hen that hasnt laid an egg in 2 years and she will sit anything i put under her.this leaves me thinking that the birds can produce crop milk on demand but if they hatch too early the fosters refuse to feed them.ive also seen squeekers running around the floor being fed off other cocks and hens,and ive also put a youngster under a pair of good feeders with only one young hatched,the pair fed the both of them from about 7 days old.