I have 2 bantam hens that are sitting on 4 guinea eggs each. They aren't perfect about knowing which nest to sit on. Will occasional cooling kill the embryos? Is there any way to tell short of just waiting it out and seeing if anything hatches? I tried candling but couldn't see anything through the thick guinea egg shells.
Thanks!
chilled eggs?
The usual advice is that a broody will get off the eggs for about 15 minutes each day...not all do and some stay off a bit longer. There is some argument that it is actually beneficial for the eggs to cool for about that length of time each day...which is why it is okay to candle the eggs in an incubator.
I used to freak when I saw that my broody had left her eggs and they seemed a bit cooler than I thought they should be...but it never seemed to hurt.
Okay, thanks. I'll wait and see what happens. I don't have anything invested in this, it is sort of an experiment just to see. I thought a couple more guineas around the place wouldn't hurt since we have such a bumper crop of ticks to eat all the time!