Brooding Hen was killed :(

[Solsalia]

She was laying on 18 eggs. They were cold. We put them in the incubator anyway. It's day 4 now. The incubator stinks, not sure if that's normal as we have never incubated before. We are sure there are probably some dead. I saw one moving this morning so I'm hopeful! How do I know if the others are dead? Any experience? So sad The one surviving is not one of her eggs. I'm hopeful some of hers made it. She was a good mommy . Second time she went broody this year.

 

[BantamLover21]

I'm sorry for the loss of your broody hen.

Hopefully some of the eggs are still alive!

What you need to do is candle the eggs. To do this, turn off all the lights in the room you have the incubator in so that it is as dark as possible. Then, get a really bright flashlight. Next, pick up each egg, in turn, and hold the flashlight right up against the egg. This should allow you to see within the egg.

At only four days of incubation, you may not see much. However, if the eggs are fertile and alive, you should see at least some red veining near the center of the egg. Those veins are the developing embryo. Try to candle the eggs relatively quickly, but don't get too worried about them chilling. Even the mother hen gets off the nest ever so often and lets the eggs cool down.

You'll probably see more in any fertile/alive eggs if you candle 3-4 days from now. At that point, you should see a reddish-black blob in each egg, with veins surrounding it. You may even see movement of the blob. If in 3-4 days you see no veins or blobs in the eggs, it is safe to assume that those eggs are dead or were never fertile--toss them, or they might begin to rot and contaminate the other eggs.

 

[Solsalia]

Thanks for the reply, they are in different stages. Most of them are dark with just the air sack showing. I seen the little egg chick moving. I wish I could figure out what chick lets died. They are to far along. I think some were days to hatching . She was such a good mom to her babies. going to look at the other eggs more closely tomorrow to see if I can see movement. When they are close to hatching can you still see movement?

 

[bobbi-j]

If you can't tell, about the only thing you can do is wait it out. Some will hatch, some may not. That's the tough part about having them at different stages of incubation. Personally, I prefer to start them all at the same time so I know what to expect when.

 

[Solsalia]

Holy cow bat man we have a baby chicky

 

[krista74]

Congratulations!

- Krista

 

[Solsalia]

We are onto 2 hatched one coming out of the shell and another with a hole. Candling revealed the two dead eggs. I think we will have at least 10 babies. ... Oh dear so much easier when mom keeps them warm and fed.

 

[Solsalia]

The 3 that hatched had leg problems as, they could never stand. They mustve gotten to cold but not cold enough to die in the egg. Very sad on the whole deal .