One of my hens is laying but not in the box. Instead, she is laying them on the cage floor and then she spends most of her time nestled in the corner of the cage under the seed cup. She wasn't sitting on the egg on the floor so I put up the breeding box and moved the two egs into it. I would imagine the first two won't be viable even if they are fertile as they haven't been kept warm but I'm hoping that if she lays any more that she'll do it in the box.

 

I was thinking that I might try to incubate any future eggs myself but have no idea how to do that. What do I need and how do I go about this? Any help would be appreciated. I hadn't actually planned on breeding any more pairs until the spring but these two obviously had other ideas! Who knows, they may not even e fertile (too soon to tell) but I'd hate to just let them perish just because their mama bird is clueless.

Hi there,

 

I know the eggs once laid don't need incubation, I think they can go a few days, a few of my hens don't sit on thier eggs until they have laid them all.

 

Can you foster the eggs to another pair?

 

I can't help with incubating them yourself....even if you did do that, did you plan on hand raising once the chicks hatch...I guess it could be done but you would have to really know what you were doing, can you crop feed if something goes wrong?

 

If it were me, I would remove the nesting box and dispose of the eggs...I don't like doing it either but if you don't have a foster pair I wouldn't even consider incubating myself.

 

Good luck with whatever you decide to do...

It's a tricky one. The hen needs to be introduced to the nest box so that she sees it as the ideal place to lay and incubate her eggs.

 

I did let a hen lay at the bottom of the breeding cabinet this year and she did incubate them but none hatched.

1. make the floor of the cage not a nice place to lay eggs................grid and no nesting materials or paper at all.

2. Remove the eggs already laid to a safe place you can keep them.

3. wait until she is due to lay the next egg and keep putting her in the nestbox .

4. ONLY once she has laid an egg in the nestbox do you add the other two eggs.

 

*** you should know that they do not incubate eggs from the moment they are laid and it will have nothing to do with them being fertile or not.

 

Eggs can keep for a week to ten days before being incubated so the two eggs you have can be kept el;sewhere and safely until she has laid the next egg. Then you add the first two to the nestbox. Leaving them in a nestbox that has just been added may mean she will destroy them in "cleaning out"the nestbox ready for use as she will not recognise them as hers in a newly added nestbox. .

Edited December 26, 200915 yr by KAZ

1. make the floor of the cage not a nice place to lay eggs................grid and no nesting materials or paper at all.

2. Remove the eggs already laid to a safe place you can keep them.

3. wait until she is due to loay the next egg and keeping putting her in the nestbox .

4. ONLY once she has laid an egg in the nestbox do you add the other two eggs.

 

*** you should know that they do not incubate eggs from the moment they are laid and it will have nothing to do with them being fertile or not.

 

Eggs can keep for a week to ten days before being incubated so the two eggs you have can be kept el;sewhere and safely until she has laid the next egg. Then you add the first two to the nestbox. Leaving them in a nestbox that has just been added may mean she will destroy them in "cleaning out"the nestbox ready for use as she will not recognise them as hers in a newly added nestbox. .

 

excellent advice once again kaz