How to hatch a bird's egg?

Discussion in 'Biology & Genetics' started by Syzygys, Jul 15, 2008.

  1. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    12,671
    Anybody here tried to "manually" hatch a birdegg?

    Where I walk the dog a found a nest with small eggs in it. I had this idea that I would take it home and try to hatch them under a 60W lamp turning the eggs in every few hours. Would that work?

    By the next day all the eggs were gone, so it is not like I was going to do any harm. I don't know what kind of bird it was, the eggs were only half inch and white with brown coloration on it....
     
  2. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  3. Myles Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    5,553
    It sound like the nest had been abandoned by the parent bird, in hich case the eggs were unlikely to have still been viable. Their disappearance could down to a fox, a weasel, a stoat or a magpie to name a few.

    My father bred canaries for a hobby and I remember that hens occasionally pushed eggs out of the nest for no apparent reason. Sometimes he rescued a few eggs and many of them hatched, wrapped in cotton wool and kept in the linen press. Feeding the chicks was a bit of a problem but he usually managed it.
     
  4. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  5. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    12,671
    Well, to come completely clean, I was cutting down weeds and didn't notice the nest until it was too late. It was originally in a very thorny weed and it was even hard just to reach it by hand.

    I did put the nest back and tried to cover it up, but the eggs were gone by the next day nevertheless..
     
  6. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  7. iceaura Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    30,994
    It's just barely possible that the mother moved them to a new nest.

    Since you didn't see shells around (some nest predation makes a little bit of a mess).

    They would need to be kept warm, not dried out radically (don't warm them by blowing dry, hot air directly on the shells), and turned gently a little bit maybe once a day or so.

    Then you could try feeding a bunch of little baby birds by hand, and soon discover what all that ceaseless summer fluttering around is about.

    If you have the nest, a careful inventory of its structure (plastic bits? string? spider web? down feathers? mud ? what kind of leaves, if any ? with a lid ? ) and location, along with your memory of the eggs, has a fair chance of identifying the bird on the internet.
     
  8. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    12,671
    Yeah, I didn't see shells, but we do have snakes and they wouldn't leave shell pieces around.
    I will try to look it up what it was later...
     
  9. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    23,049
    syxygys, farmers use an incubator to hatch eggs. its possable that there is a site you could find on google that would tell you how to make up a makeshift one
     
  10. alanejackson Search + Share ~ Magnetrition Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    110
    Those that study nesting birds, have noticed that some will make decoy nests and put eggs in them.
     
  11. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    33,264
    The birds might be just gone for awhile, they could come back. Also the birds could have been killed.
     
  12. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    12,671
    Would putting them into the microwave and setting it on very slow also work??
     
  13. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    23,049
    umm no?

    even if you COULD do it at such a low stedy temp you would destroy the developing embrio.

    You would be better off with the oven set really low if you could
     
  14. ashura the Old Right Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    3,611
    This TOTALLY made my day!

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
  15. draqon Banned Banned

    Messages:
    35,006
    thing is ... if you touch the eggs and the birds hatch the human scent will distract other potential birds from caring for the babies.
     
  16. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    23,049
    draqon thats not actually true

    Mum and dad have chickens and they just refriderate (and eat

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

    ) the eggs until they decide they want more chickens and have a clucky hen. Then they just put the eggs they want to hatch under her and wait
     
  17. draqon Banned Banned

    Messages:
    35,006
    chickens are domesticated. I was talking about wild birds' eggs. And my cousins got a farm, so yes I know about the chicken egg hatchings.
     
  18. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    23,049
    fair point
     
  19. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

    Messages:
    24,690
    We used to breed parrots and we often had to rear eggs which, for one reason or another, the parents could not or would not take care of.

    You need to keep them at something like 103 degrees (Fahrenheit). Remarkably, almost all birds require the same temperature. And you need to turn the eggs over about once a day--roll them, don't turn them end-over-end or you'll kill them.

    The incubation period varies by species. For large parrots it's a month, for smaller birds it's much shorter.

    Raising pet birds is a big business so there are lots of companies that make incubators. The fancy ones will even turn the eggs for you. If you have duck eggs, which need to cool down once a day to simulate their mother going off looking for food, the high-end incubators will even do that.

    But that is only the beginning. The real work starts when the eggs hatch. Chickens are atypical birds that are born with feathers and the ability to stand up, see and eat. Most birds are born without feathers, blind and helpless. You have to continue to keep them around 103 degrees (don't believe me on that, it's been a long time and I could be off by two or three degrees which would be enough to kill all your birds). Now you have to get a brooder, which is like an incubator for hatchlings, although some people manage to do it with a heating pad. You can't let the babies lie flat or they won't develop their muscles. You have to put them in a little padded Tupperware that forces them to sit up or stand up.

    And EVERY TWO HOURS AROUND THE CLOCK, DAY, NIGHT AND WEEKENDS, you have to feed them.

    You can buy baby bird mix (that's good for most species) and just dissolve it in hot water, that's the easy part. Then you have to pick up the hatchling very gently and stick a syringe in his mouth, simulating what the momma bird does, and slowly fill his stomach with food. You have to let him swallow. Not too fast or it will overflow and go down his windpipe and drown him. He may fuss and spill it. You have to judge when he's had enough.

    This will go on for two weeks for small birds and a month for larger birds, although the feeding cycle becomes less frequent and you can start sleeping the whole night. They will slowly grow out their feathers, open their eyes, and develop enough muscle tone to stand up. Then finally they will develop the muscles in their mouths so they can feed themselves.

    At this point you have to know what species your bird is and give him the right food. He might eat seeds, fruit, nectar, nuts, oatmeal, bread, meat (he may prefer bugs but he'll eat cooked ground meat) or something more exotic. Most of the birds you find in your garden are seed eaters, so statistically that's probably what you've got.

    Then you have to wait for him to be old enough to fly. This can take a couple of months for a parrot, or a few weeks for a songbird.

    You may think you're finished now, but keep reading.

    What you now have is an IMPRINTED bird. You fed him when he was a baby and his eyes just opened, so his instincts kicked in and identified you as his momma. Now he thinks he's whatever species you are. I presume you're Homo sapiens so he thinks he's one of us. He's not going to fly out the window and hang out with the other robins or sparrows or mockingbirds, he's going to go looking for people and hang out with them. If you have a dog or cat in the house he will have no fear of dogs and cats so he'll hang out with them too.

    He will not be able to live on his own in the wild. You have raised him as a pet and you have to keep him.

    This is not 100% guaranteed, some birds and some individuals have stronger instincts than others. In some cases, imprinted birds can be successfully reintroduced to the wild. But there's a good chance that he will want to stay with you.

    We've done that with orphaned wild birds. It was a lot of fun. But it's a tremendous responsibility and it changes your life.
     
  20. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    23,049
    FR one of my sisters had to hand raise a day old chook and teach it things for biology. That chicken turned out to be the friendlist of all the ones mum and dad kept (it used to follow my sister around when we let them out of the cage ect). Unfortunatly it was killed when a fox got into the chicken cage

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!



    Chicks are fun though, mum and dad turned an old rabit cage into a nesting box so that whichever hen was clucky was away from the other hens. I was watching the chicks one day and a fly flew though the cage. This chick chanced it around the cage and caught it and it was only about 1 day old, facinating
     
  21. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    12,671
    We have a giant cat and a terrier so the chance of the birds surviving long is small... But I still would try, if it happens again...
     
  22. Syzygys As a mother, I am telling you Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    12,671
  23. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

    Messages:
    24,690
    As I said, chickens are atypical because they are hatched fully fledged and able to see, walk and feed themselves. Very few species can do that.
    You got foxes in Australia??? How many invasive species have been introduced over there???
    Absolutely everyone I know has more trouble with dogs than cats. I don't know anyone whose bird was killed by a cat, but dogs have killed off about twenty.
     

Share This Page