Will eggs rot?

[kirajarosz]

Hello!

We have 9 eggs under our speckled sussex hen and she is doing a great job tending to her nest. This is our first time allowing a hen to hatch eggs. It has been 10 days since we put the eggs under her. I tried to candle the eggs last night, but most are black copper marans and 10th generation olive egger eggs. The marans eggs are very difficult to see through and the olive eggers block all light. We have 2 barnevelder eggs and I was able to see definitely development in 1.

My question is -- is it OK to leave all the eggs under her? I don't want to remove any because I can't tell if there is development…but will undeveloped eggs rot? I have read about rotten eggs exploding underneath broody hens.

Just looking for some input, advice, experience. Thanks!!

 

[Manningjw]

Hello!

We have 9 eggs under our speckled sussex hen and she is doing a great job tending to her nest. This is our first time allowing a hen to hatch eggs. It has been 10 days since we put the eggs under her. I tried to candle the eggs last night, but most are black copper marans and 10th generation olive egger eggs. The marans eggs are very difficult to see through and the olive eggers block all light. We have 2 barnevelder eggs and I was able to see definitely development in 1.

My question is -- is it OK to leave all the eggs under her? I don't want to remove any because I can't tell if there is development…but will undeveloped eggs rot? I have read about rotten eggs exploding underneath broody hens.

Just looking for some input, advice, experience. Thanks!!

Both incubator and broody hen eggs have a chance at spoiling, but out of the hundreds of eggs I have hatched, I haven't had a single exploding egg. With eggs you cannot reliably tell if they are developing vs not, or even if you think there is a small chance they are developing and it just is too hard to see, leave them there. In general, under a broody I wouldn't mess with the eggs much and just let the hen do what she was born to do. After all the chicks have hatched and the hen transitions to raising them I check the other eggs to see if there are any signs of life and move those to an incubator. I haven't had that happen either, the hen somehow knows when eggs are still cooking or when they are all hatched or no longer developing/alive.