This is Farm Mom and I could not reply to the board because it's well, closed.
As I stated in my original post there was no chance of the eggs being incubated before I collected them. My nest boxes are all lined with cedar shavings less than an inch thick and the floor is covered the same. I collect eggs at least 3 times a day because I sell fresh eggs locally. Matter of fact any eggs not sold by Sunday are boiled and fed to my baby chicks or peafowl.
The eggs I set were all collected the day before and cooled overnight then put in the incubator the next morning. The early chicks were all normal and fully formed. The incubator was set at 99.5* and 60% humidity.
I know the whole thing sounded incredible - that's why I posted it in the first place. I wanted to know if anyone else has ever had this happen.
I just set a new batch this morning so we will see if I have bred up some super chickens or just weird hens who hold their eggs for a week before laying them.

No, there has to be another explaination--it simply is IMPOSSIBLE to accelerate the development of the chick or any other embryo--kittens, puppies, human babies born early are either not viable or still "unfinished". Mother Nature has a time table for the development of each of her creatures. There has to be another explaination! It is impossible to convince some people that hummingbirds do not migrate under the feathers of a goose. They DO NOT. Sometime you will find out "the other side of the story". But meantime we will take your word for it, and since it cannot happen again, it will remain an "unsolved mystery". CJR

Is it possible that a hen can hold a fertile egg in her body past the time when she should have laid it? Something like habitually eggbound or something that would give her egg a head start on incubating?

Still looking for a viable explanation....

:o) Farm Mom

No , eggbound, a hen can barely get around. The canal the egg travels from ovary to laying goes through the addition of white, membranes and the shell, just hours before the egg is layed and there is not room for a second egg to receive any of its parts plus the shell without the first egg being layed. It takes about 25 hours to mature and complete each egg, which is why a hen does not lay at exactly the same time every day, but about an hour later--then, when she lays in the late afternoon there is a gap until she lays fairly early in the morning and thus a slightly later time each day. And most hens do not lay every single day, but will skip now and then. During hot weather or at the end of their lay cycle, if they are a setter, they may skip several days to a week. But hatch in 14 days--impossible unless incubated for at least 6 days prior--19 days, extremely rare, 20 days, not uncommon, 21 days, the norm. The mystery continues. An interrupted incubation is possible, but not usually successful. Power outages for up to 12 hours can still mean a hatch from an incubator, if it is not opened and it protected with a blanket or such. But if the egg was collected from a nest, a hen had to be sitting on it most of the time for 6 days before you collected it. Maybe you reached under a hen and missed the one egg??But for 6 days, you would remember a hen in that nest???The mystery continues!!! CJR

None of my hens have been broody since the first of June. Even then they are caged separate and I only use them to hatch out the eggs. I do not have a hatcher separate from my incubator.
My latest batch of eggs were set on July 9 and so far everything seems normal......

I know this sound like a very stupid question! "How do you tell a He chicken from a Her chicken? Please, no wise cackles. THANK YOU FOR YOUR INFORMATION.
Lee
rascalrnch@aol.com

This message is to Farm Mom, who had the very early hatches. I can't help thinking about your early hatch. I wrote initially suggesting that it was impossible because the embryo didn't develope uniformly, and that at 14 or 15 or 16 days the embryo would not be a viable chick. Your subsequent responses indicate you have a good knowledge of poultry raising, and I don't think you're trying to fool anyone, so now I have a question for you.

Can you determine which chicks are the ones which hatched early? I believe the first was at 14 days, with a second and third hatching at 16 and 17 days of incubation. If you have a male and female out of the three, can you pair those next spring, so see if their offspring hatch in less than 21 days?

I know it's off-the-wall, but if chickens can be bred for other characteristics, maybe you could breed for a shorter incubation period from the two or three chicks which hatched early this year. As I'm sure you're aware, a brooding hen stops laying eggs during her brood, so she is out of production if she "sets", for at least three weeks. But if you have developed a breed that could incubate its egges in say two weeks, that would mean that the brood hen would be back in production that much sooner than she would if her eggs took three weeks to hatch. Also, no matter how many years we old timers have been setting eggs, its always exciting when it's hatch time, and this would significantly reduce both the cost of incubation, as well as the frustrations of having to wait.

In the interim, if people give you a hard time about your short hatch, I'll be willing to put a "I BELIEVE YOU, FARM MOM" on the bumper of my truck in your support.

Dear, dear Afarhat,

Thank you for that boost of confidence! I was begining to think ALL you guys thought I was a nut. I am most definitely not trying to slide a fib here but was genuinely looking for an explanation to a very odd occurance.

The three early chicks turned out to be 1 cock and two hens. I will give consideration to breeding that trio to see what happens. I also band each bird with a hatch date so I won't be mixing them up eithor.

I had set another 4 dozen eggs on the 3rd and they began to hatch yesterday. They started 1 day early so nothing to brag on there.

I never got an explanation or a comment from anyone that had a similar happening so I guess I'm still stumped.

Off I go to tend my hatching brood!

:o)Farm Mom

Farm Mom, you are driving me crazy!

Your last message states that you set 4 dozen eggs on the 3rd, and they began to hatch yesterday, so you have nothing to brag about.

Your message was posted July 30. If you set eggs on July 3, and those eggs first began hatching July 29, 26 days after you set them, and you consider that a day early, you either have some very strange chickens, or need a new calendar. But I do suggest you hold off on the bragging on this, until you check your dates.

My bad! My bad! I was drinking warm cream in my coffee when I wrote that. All the eggs are marked 7/9-30 not the 3rd like I wrote. Brain fart!
I still have 4 eggs that are just now piping so they are 2 days late.
SORRY for the confusion......
:o)Farm Mom
http://www.wsites.com/Farm_Mom/

I have also had early hatches a couple of times in the last month. The first time I attributed it to holding eggs for a couple of days. BUT the last batch were gathered and put in the incubator the same day. I only
had seven eggs a day, so I know that all are gathered
daily, yet the chicks pipped 2 to 3 days early. Go figure.

I have had several Bantam eggs hatch at 18 days. My other eggs usually hatch between 20-22 days, however this winter my bantam eggs have been consistent in hatching at 18 days in my incubator. I did find that my thermometer was not working properly and my temp was higher than it should have been, but it still seems pretty soon to hatch at 18 days. The chicks are all normal. To date I have around 20 of them that hatched at 18 days.

Farm Mom: The culprit is the temperature gauge or thermometer in your incubator. There are no miracles here. I have seen them hatch early and late all because of this reason. You need to invest in a new one. Sorry.....

I HAVE BEEN RAISING CHICKENS FOR A LONG TIME AND I HAD A HEN TO HATCH ALL EIGHT OF HER EGGS 6 DAYS EARLY.ALL MY HENS THAT SET ARE MARKED ON A CALANDER.MY BROTHER HAD A HEN TO HATCH 5 DAYS EARLY. THERE IS NO MISTAKE ON THE DATES THAT THESE HENS HATCHED,IT CAN HAPPEN.

Jwp98 writing you letter in CAPTAL LETTERS do not make it more real i say GET REAL no way.

I had a chicken that I was incubating and it came out of it's shell and it wasn't even fully developed. The inside of the chicken was out of the stomach this was my first egg that I have ever hatched and I was just wondering if this was common? It was chirping throughout the hole ordeal but then it died. If anyone can help I would appreciate it very much

Anonymous, did you help it out? NEVER HELP A CHICK OUT OF IT"S EGG PREMATURELY!!! I made that mistake, and my chick died. The problem is, they have to fully absorb the yolk sac, and they need the pressure of the eggshell to fully absorb it. NEVER HELP A CHICK OUT OF IT"S SHELL UNLESS YOU KNOW IT NEEDS HELP!!!

how long does it ussually take for a dozen eggs to hatch at 37.5 degrees Celcus and could they run late if they can how long before they r dead?


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