| MadSci Network: General Biology |
Unless you have an incubator which can recreate the mother bird's body temperature (usually above 100 degrees F or 40 degress C) you probably won't be able to get the eggs to hatch. Even birds that don't sit on the eggs (brooding) have devised some method to raise the temperature around the eggs. Unfortunately, covering the eggs with a cloth and leaving them in the sun won't produce the high and constant temperature nedded for the eggs to develop properly and hatch (it will become much too cold at night). In the future, if you really want to watch the bird's eggs hatch and the babies grow and develop you should remember where the nest is, find a comfortable spot some distance away from the nest where you can still see it, and visit on a regular basis.
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