PeckyBeak Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Started my broody on eggs only last night, they were lovely and warm this morning when she came out to eat, then disaster, I had to go to answer the door, and meanwhile the broody house door had blown shut, so the broody couldn't get back in. I didn't realise this until at least 45 minutes later. The eggs felt cool, is all lost, do I have to start again? Can anyone advise me please. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimi5 Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Has she gone back on to them now? Is she sitting tight? If so you may be ok. I read that cooling is a part of incubating and I know that there has been another similar post recently. Can you arrange the run/coop so this doesn't happen again? You may want to candle the eggs around day 10 if your broody continues to sit. Hope this helps, I'm sure somebody more knowledgeable will be along soon!! Best of luck!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeckyBeak Posted May 22, 2012 Author Share Posted May 22, 2012 Thank you mimi5, I have found the previous post about this, which gave me some reassurance, I have three broodies on eggs at the moment and I had put the rarer breed eggs under her as she has hatched chicks before and I thought there was less chance of things going wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimi5 Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Ah the old "best of plans" reasoning!!!!! I'm beginning to realize that you have to just go with it sometimes....chickens don't read the manual!!!! I wish they would though..ha ha. Seriously keep us posted, because you might give somebody else encouragement if they face a similar scenario! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markAndCharlene Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Id say that you will be OK and that you should just let her get on with it In fact, the new Brinsea incubators have a specific cooling period function, the minimum of which is 60 minutes. In fact, they claim that hatches are better with cooling periods. Copied this from the brinsea website... Periodic Cooling in Incubation It is a surprising fact that, although eggs must have very stable temperatures to incubate successfully, periodic cooling can be a good thing and far from harming the development of chicks, can actually lead to more successful hatching. Bird breeders have known for many decades that eggs can be cooled for limited periods of time during incubation without causing problems but recent research has shown that hatch rates can actually increase significantly as a result of cooling. To read the full research paper click http://www.epsaegypt.com/pdf/2011_june/15-%201271.pdf. Cooling is an entirely natural process as most birds will get off the nest at least once a day and leave the eggs unheated for a significant time. From Brinsea’s 35 year experience, the best hatch rates are always achieved when the incubator can best mimic the natural nest conditions. For this reason Brinsea have incorporated a cooling option in our Advance models of egg incubators for 2012. Based on the results of the research paper above the user of an Octagon 40 Advance could expect one additional egg to hatch on average. Brinsea's cooling feature turns the incubator’s heater and low temperature alarm off for a selectable period but keeps the fan running. After the cooling period is complete the incubator reverts to normal temperature and the alarm is automatically reset. The cooling function is optional and the user can select cooling periods of 60, 120, 180, 240, 300 and 360 minutes with fixed 24 hour intervals. The default setting is that cooling is set to off. This new function applies to the Advance and Advance EX versions of the Mini, Octagon 20, Octagon 40, OvaEasy 190 and OvaEasy 380 models. Brinsea have assessed the available research and recommend that smaller poultry, waterfowl and game bird eggs are cooled for 2 hours each day and larger eggs (e.g. duck and goose) are cooled for 3 hours each day from day 7 through to 2 days before they are due to hatch (the same point that automatic turning would normally be turned off). Cooling is not recommended for parrots and birds of prey because the results of cooling for these species haven’t yet been established. This cooling feature is an option which can be enabled to improve your hatch rates. Further reading on the effects of period cooling of incubating eggs can be found here: Joseph Batty ‘Artificial Incubation and Rearing’ 1994. P103. ‘…there is no doubt that the natural cooling given by the hen when she leaves the nest for feeding does result in very strong chicks’ ‘In the small incubator the cooling given when eggs are being turned or candled should be beneficial’ F. Bogenfurst, Pannon University of agriculture, Hungary. 1997. Experiment showed the increase in hatch rate of geese eggs with periodic cooling. Concluded ‘Incubation results improved with periodic cooling’. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Goose Production by Roger Buckland and Gérard Guy, ‘The eggs should be cooled each day during incubation by opening the doors of the setters for 15 minutes from days 4-27’ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
