| Author: Bob Rowland | Title: Late in hatching |
| Date: 2003-04-01 23:08:53 | Uploaded by: webmaster |
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In response to Dewey (message below),
A pigeon can set a nest and yet still not be incubating the eggs or at least one of them. I had a pigeon that I thought was infertile because he never had young so I was going to dispose of him. However, upon checking the next sets of eggs I saw that they began developing so I thought that perhaps a paratyphoid germ was in the eggs and killing the development.
Finally found out that he did not like setting on two eggs as he kept pushing one outside of himself and I would guess that the next day or two it would be the other one so it killed the development. Long and short, I transferred his eggs and they hatched just fine so he became a sperm donor but could not be used as a feeder/pumper type pigeon. I suppose if I had waited until the eggs began chipping under someone else and transferred them back under him that this may have worked.
Now it is also important for everyone to realize that eggs can be stored for a while after being laid without beginning development but the embryo must be massaged or it will settle and the eggs don't want to begin developing. To do this I use an incubator with the turning attachment but I do not use any heat. If I applied the heat, the eggs would begin to form but by just having them stored, you can transfer them under pumpers so the timing is exact and it is my belief that this will provide for better nutrients when the eggs hatch.
To use an incubator it is imperative that the eggs be put into the egg cups with the point DOWN. If you put the point up, it could stop the egg from being exercised properly.
So in conclusion, if the eggs you spoke about were not started at the same time through some freak of nature, they could hatch at a different time schedule. This is another good reason to collect your first eggs on the day they are laid when the weather is very cold and by storing them until the second egg is laid, both young should hatch almost the same time and you won't have some of your eggs freezing and cracking.
Bob Rowland,
SpringHill, FLorida USA
Dewey wrote:
Can anyone shed some light on the following?
I have a yearling hen mated to a two year old. The first two eggs were clear. The first egg of the second round was laid March 4. First egg hatched March 21, second egg hatched last night!! (March 25).
I take my CRS pill daily so I know my recorded dates are accurate. When the second egg did not hatch by the 23rd, I checked it and found that it was "light as a feather"...almost pitched it. I determined that it did have a live embryo. There was indication of pipping the morning of the 24th. The youngster is really tiny and has a sizable area on his neck where the down and skin appears to have been shaved as with a razor. (Top layer of skin taken off).
At first I thought that another hen had laid the first egg in this hen's nest and that she began incubating it before her eggs were laid. BUT, that would mean she would have three eggs in the nest...which she did not. No sign of any broken eggs in the breeder section.
I have always reasoned that if an egg did not hatch in 18 days, the embryo was dead.
Dewey
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