rotten egg under broody help wanted

[zachbelle]

as the hatch day draws near (somewhere around four to six days from now.) i have been checking on "mama" i couple times a day. i tried candling her eggs a few days ago i thought all was well since i could mostly see a dark shadow. theyre brown eggs so i havent had much luck trying to candle.this morning i went out she was happily sitting and all seemed well. i went out this aftrnoon and noticed an egg just infront of her and at a closer look i saw it was open and i thought oh boy my calculations werr way off!! and as i drew closer the most fowel smelling odor i had ever smelled blew me away. i cleaned up the mess and saw no signs of a partially formed chick or yolk or anything just some slimy hay and the egg shell. i did not notice the egg smellig before this and some of the other eggs smell like this now too....what could have happened? and is it possible they are all bad a

 

[Pyxis]

That egg probably started developing earlier in incubation and then quit. Broodies usually know when an egg is bad and kick it out of the nest so that is likely what happened here. The others might not be bad, they might just have the smell from the bad egg on them. If you want to be really sure go to Walmart or a similar store and pick up a small flashlight with the most lumens you can find. I got a nice one there for $20 and I can see through marans eggs with it.

 

[zachbelle]

ok thank you i started worrying they were all rotten and considered dumping them all...then my concious kicked in and i would have felt terrible if any were chicks. ill have to try and find a better light.

 

[zachbelle]

so i checked today after another exploded egg and they were all rotten....when she firat went broody the first week or so she was in w the other hens and they were laying in her nest maybe she was having trouble covering them all and this caused them to die when i moved her to a secluded area i candled and discarded the ones i knew for sure werent doing anythibg and left her alone w twelve eggs. she sat on the like a champ was never off them and i checked several times a day i let her out w the other hens every morning to do her buissiness and have some treats at feeding time then ahe went right back to sitting. any way i discarded of the rotten eggs this morning and cleaned all the soiled hay in her area up and left her w the rest of my flock. when i went out to check she had built a new nest w the eggs my hens laid fresh this morning. she is determined to sit! whould i do? should i move her and the fresh eggs immesiatly back into her area and let her start over? or should i just collect the eggs and move on? i dont want to upset her but i couldnt allow rotten eggs to continue exploding....

 

[Pyxis]

You can let her try again if you want. It can be hard on a hen to sit for that long though so just make sure she is eating and drinking. I had a very determined silkie once who sat for three months until I gave her eggs to hatch.

 

[16 paws]

I would go to the feed store and get her a few chicks. Make sure they are only a couple days old and put them under her at night. I had to do this 3 times with my Jersey Giant Penny. We didnt have a roo so no fertile eggs. It worked everytime and she was so happy to raise her babies.
Good luck
Marie

 

[donrae]

I'm with 16 paws, if she's been setting this long she needs an end. Look for some day old chicks somewhere to put under her.