# Switching eggs



## Joel (Mar 6, 2001)

Well, i finally have my new birds paired up. The newest pair should have eggs in a couple of days and my old pair about 6 days later. The old pair have been poor parents in the past and i would like to switch the eggs when they lay. Will the new pair continue to sit the extra days or is this to long. How long will they usually sit on dummy eggs?

Thanks,
Joel


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## Lovebirds (Sep 6, 2002)

Joel, 6 days is too long. The general rule of thumb is 2 or 3 days, preferably 2 or less. There is no way to know if the new birds will stay with the eggs the extra days. Nature provides the parents with the crop milk and after about 6 days or so, they stop producing it and start the babies on a seed diet. Even if the new birds sat long enough, they may not be prepared to give the babies all the nutrition they need thier first few days of life. Most hens will stay with their eggs about 19 to 21 days. They instictively know when the "time is up". I do have a hen that sat on dummy eggs for a very long time. I didn't mark down the day she laid but I know that she sat on them for at least 30 days. This was one of our young birds this past year and I could not get her to fly. She only wanted to be on the nest. The cock she was mated to wasn't interested in them as long as she was. She sat alone all day every day. Finally I took them away from her. These were her first eggs and whether she would sit that long again, I don't know.


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## TerriB (Nov 16, 2003)

I had a hen that didn't want to come off the eggs. We have since found out that she has an infection in her egg canal which we are treating with antibiotics. Just so you are aware there could be different reasons for this.

Regarding swapping eggs, if you can wait a few cycles to let them settle in, the pairs might get on the same time line. All three of my hens tend to come off their eggs within a day or two of each other. It seems that the excitement of a pair courting pulls other hens off if they are close to the end of their cycle. The result is that eggs are laid about the same time, so swapping would be easy. This happened without the stress of human interference. Of course this assumes your birds are housed together. Just my experience, but I know this happens with other species.


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## Motherlodelofts (Oct 9, 2004)

Joel love bird is right, 6 days is to long, 4 days is a stretch. Heres another option. Just pull the eggs from the old pair and set them aside somewhere safe where they can't get damaged, turn them a few time's a day and then place them once the fosters lay. Keep in mind as the days click by chances of hatching diminishes. I'm told that 10 days is the max although I've never held them that long. Six days is fine. If the fosters lay first then timing is very critical and I won't do it unless both lay one or maybe two day apart tops. I allways want my fosters to lay at the same time or after the pair that I'm pulling eggs from.


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## WhiteWingsCa (Mar 1, 2002)

We 'foster' probably more than 50% of our birds

We've done both ways -- switching eggs from birds who have laid closed together (5 days is the max - 2to 3 is better. And, by 'holding' eggs.... where you take the eggs from one pair, and "hold' them at room temperature for 5-8 days until another pair has laid

In holding -- it is imperiative that you remove the eggs to be held IMMEDIATELY -- before the birds start to incubate, and growth starts. If you take them away after growth starts -- the egg/chicks will die.

In fostering -- you can also take the eggs away from BOTH of the pairs right now. In 10 days or so -- both will lay again, very close to each other -- so you can swap eggs then.

Last year, hubby threw away the entire first round of eggs from all our birds -- in order to get them all laying at the same time, so we could foster. A lot of people though we were nuts -- but it worked really well for us!


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## Birdmom4ever (Jan 14, 2003)

*Fostering*

We foster a lot, too. The longest I've held an egg successfully was five days.


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## Motherlodelofts (Oct 9, 2004)

Pulling them before they start incubating is no doubt a critical point


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## Birdmom4ever (Jan 14, 2003)

Yes. You need to pull them immediately after they are laid, before they start to incubate.


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## WhiteWingsCa (Mar 1, 2002)

Birdmom4ever said:


> We foster a lot, too. The longest I've held an egg successfully was five days.



The longest we ever tried to hold for was 5 days (from the 1st egg). During our research on the subject, hubby had heard of folks who had managed to hold for as long as 8 -- but the general consensus was that anything longer than that never worked well.

There were some stories about people who kept the eggs in the refrigerator for even longer -- but he never found anyone who could prove that that method worked at all.

It is absolutely fascinating to see the eggs from a 'holding' hatch! I don't know why-- but it is just so neat!


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## Motherlodelofts (Oct 9, 2004)

From what I understand they go in the crisper of the refer. I've never tracked days as far as holding but nor have I held them for long. generally I just set them in a small feed cup half filled with wheat and set them on a shelf.
and turn em a couple times a day


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## Joel (Mar 6, 2001)

Thanks everyone for the replies.
Very interesting!

Joel


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## Jerry (Nov 21, 2003)

Joel, This doesn't help your situation, but I've found that each pair have their own schedules, foibles and list of what they will put up with. I have one hen that has never laid an egg!!...some have said I should cull her...but if you put an egg in her nest AT ANY TIME she will begin incubating it (them) and is a wonderful mother (and the gentlest of spirits). I have used her to raise quite a few foster eggs. I have another hen that will sit on fake eggs till doomsday if I don't take them away. Others will kick them out of the nest pretty much on schedule.


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