FINCHforum

Hullo everybody, can you tell me, when the eggs are close to being hatched, can the hen feel any movement in the eggs when she is on them, OR are they dead still till hatching? thanks. If so how long before hatching do they move in the egg?

They constantly are moving in the egg from day 1 to hatch. Some start peeping before they even hatch.

As Debbie said, they can feel and hear the babies.

You can see the movement yourself during candling.
http://wp.me/p4JWrl-1v

@debbie276 -- Do finches start peeping before hatching?
I've seen it with other birds, but always the variety that walk and eat independently from day one (there's a term for these birds, vs. the helpless can't eat/can't walk babies, but I can't recall it at the moment.)

Thank you all, I am just so stressed now BECAUSE I am worried she will give up and say, no I have had enough of egg sitting and leave the nest, I expect the ETA before Friday of new ones at ZEBPORT and we are sitting patiently in the arrivals lounge for flight 5 to arrive. So, I was just wondering if they know its soon........ thankszzzzzzzz.

CHIRP -- Indeed, she knows they're coming.

They can even tell which eggs are fertile and growing.
I've seen them toss out eggs that were infertile or DIS; eggs I'd left in there knowing they were infertile or DIS after candling just to keep the egg quantity up so they'd keep sitting.

So they definitely know.
I've seen them sit much longer then necessary (3+ weeks) just to ensure nothing was going to hatch (and in cases where I'd put clear eggs in there for hens who laid too much.)
I have no idea how/why clear eggs or fakes work. Seems like they shouldn't. It must just be an abundance of caution on their part. Perhaps something like "Hmm...well, I haven't heard/felt this egg move at all. But maybe I just missed it. I'll keep sitting, just in case."

The movement in the eggs is pretty constant as you can see by my videos. I know the movement must decrease a bit right before hatching, as there's not much room in there (unless it's an abnormally big egg! My Ivy's eggs are huge and I candled a few hours before hatching and by the amount of room in there, I thought they had 2-3 days of incubation left!) I bet they instinctively know this, though. And even though the movements are likely few, I'm sure they can feel them.
I've never felt movement in a finch egg, but I hatched larger eggs for 4H when I was a kid -- geese and chickens -- and you could feel the movements very clearly in the few days before hatching.

It's so exciting knowing you have a stork flight coming in!

Nature is an amazing thing, to witness life being developed day by day......... maybe Friday! Thank you for the info everybody.

CHIRP -- Yes! It's really incredible!

It's truly amazing to see them develop. Such a privilege when you have a bird who lets you be a part of such a precious experience.

This just amazes me; I have a hard time wrapping my mind around it:

@debbie276 -- Do finches start peeping before hatching?

I've heard it with quail, ducks and chickens but my ears are not good enough to hear it with finch but......

http://www.mfgouldianfinches.com/Breedi ... hicks.html
"The parents can hear those chicks peeping through the egg shells and are waiting for them to emerge."

https://ladygouldian.com/content/year-l ... dian-finch
"Prior to hatching, the chicks begin to peep from within the eggs, so they are in contact with each other, as well as with their parents."

We've heard peeping before hatching with our turkeys, guinea hens, chickens and button quail eggs. MiaCarter

I've seen it with other birds, but always the variety that walk and eat independently from day one (there's a term for these birds, vs. the helpless can't eat/can't walk babies, but I can't recall it at the moment.)

. I've never heard the finches but they're so tiny. I'll bet the mother and father can hear their chicks though. I think the word you're trying to remember is "precocial" the same Latin root as precocious which is interesting....vs. "altricial" birds totally dependent on parents.
I love your video of movement during candling! Seeing the heartbeat is so cool!

Corkysgirl --- Yes! Precocial/Altricial were the terms I was trying to remember! Thank you!
It was driving me nuts! I couldn't figure out what the heck to google for that.

MiaCarter I'm always forgetting words so I know very well how you feel!

Altricial comes from a Latin root meaning "to nourish"

debbie276 I love learning word meanings and and origins. My husband is a descendant of Daniel Webster so we have healthy banter on vocabulary words. I haven't found one yet he doesn't know the meaning of when I ask him. (Not that I know them...just testing him).