Abandoned Eggs?

[julesapple]

This morning, the BH was up early and let the chooks out of their new house, then turfed out both broodies for breakfast and ablutions. Morag did the very basics and quickly nipped back on to her eggs, but Shirley was away from hers for more than hour (no one noticed in the breakfast time chaos) and the eggs went really very cold.We're on Day 13, so how will this effect the eggs?

Also, is there a tonic or something we can get for Shirley as her comb is incredibly pale and she's not eating. She was wormed and mite-powdered just before she sat on her eggs.

Update**** Just found some NetTex Poultry Nutri-Drops on the www so will buy some today from the Agri place.

Jules

[RichmondHens]

Don't worry about the comb. Often broodies lose colour when sitting - so would you if you spent 23 of every 24 hours inside in the dark! I presume you've checked for red mite as broodies are (literally) a sitting target.

And in this weather I wouldn't worry too much about the eggs getting cool. Although they were probably cool to touch the core temperature takes longer to come down. In mid summer eggs can be left for longer without too much issue, it's in Feb/March when it's still pretty cold that problems arise.

The other thing is unless the hens you are using have a habit of soiling the nest then I would leave it up to the hen to decide when she wants to get off - they don't all want to get off every single day. Some of mine will sit for three days before getting off. So don't worry about turfing them off, as long as they can get to water and food when they want it that is sufficient.

[Deeble]

personally I prefer to lift mine off once a day. As for her being off the eggs for an hour that is fine :-)