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Incubating eggs

Atomiklan

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Seems pretty common that most finches, in fact several species of bird will lay several eggs before starting to incubate them. This confuses me. I have observed my finch pair in the past with their eggs. There may be some difference in behavior once they start the official incubation behavior in terms of sitting time, but I guess my confusion is over the actual physics of the problem. What is different about them being in the nest with the eggs for the first few days vs them officially "incubating" the eggs. Sure they might not be as fluffed up as they are during incubation time, but they both still cram into the nest together over the top of the eggs and their collective body heat must end up at essentially the same result. I just fail to see the official difference thermally. Do they squat over the eggs or something the first few days and we just cant tell the difference? Is the difference only really in behavior? ie once they start incubating, they are more rigorous in their switching off and they really fluff up and smother the eggs. Thoughts on this subject?
 

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Eggs don't start to incubate until they reach the right temperature so part time sitting probably doesn't bring them up high enough to start. The same reason why some eggs may not hatch because they were on the outside/edge and got cold.

What is different about them being in the nest with the eggs for the first few days vs them officially "incubating" the eggs
My best guess is because they are in a cage and held captive. Where else they gonna go?
 

Atomiklan

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Eggs don't start to incubate until they reach the right temperature so part time sitting probably doesn't bring them up high enough to start.
This still doesn't make much sense. You say part time sitting does not bring them up to temperature. You're telling me that two finches tightly snuggled together on top of eggs in a nest for 8-12 hours at night is not enough time to bring the temperature of those eggs up to body temperature. From a pure physics standpoint that makes no sense. They would reach equilibrium very quickly in my opinion. The only hypothesis I have so far is the eggs do come up to temp and start incubating during this time, but its just not as consistent during the day time and so they develop much more slowly at first. My only other potential hypothesis is they really do sit differently during this time so as to not drastically warm the eggs overnight, but I still find this incredibly unlikely. Incubation temperature seems to be recommended (at least artificially) of around 99.5 F. I don't think that temp could be achieved through convection or radiation. Only through direct conduction. Perhaps when I do decide in the future to expand my flock (as we talked about a month or so ago), I will build a faux egg with a thermocouple and attach it to a data logger. Then we can graph the temp variations. ie the temps the first few days, day and night before incubation, and then see if the temp increases when the parents officially start to incubate. Should be really interesting. Thanks for the input.

This is all still just hypothetical. No eggs, or plans of eggs any time soon.
 
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