So chickens, they lay 1 maybe 2 eggs a day. Every day. But then they hatch out 10 or so babies all pretty much at once. Or at least in the same day. So how does that timer work? Do they just go into over drive and lay them all at once? How come the first egg laid doesn’t hatch long before the last egg? How does that genetic timer work so they are all “born” around the same time?
In: 4
A hen doesn’t start really sitting on her clutch until she’s laid (or stolen!) a nest full of eggs. Once she’s satisfied with the amount of future offspring she will sit on them for 23.5 hours a day, leaving only to eat and dust bathe, for 21 days, when they will hatch if they were fertilized. The development of the embryo starts when she warms them up, not when the egg is laid.
Latest Answers