Broody on eggs - day 21...coop smells bad

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skya328

skya328

Songster
11 Years
Nov 10, 2008
207
4
119
Dallas, TX
This is my broody's first set of eggs that she's on. (And our first experience with a broody hen!) DH and I noticed her sitting on them in a hidden nest on Sept 1st. We had to move her from her nest in the grass to the tractor last week due to fire ants.

She started out with 21 eggs, then was seen eating one. She was down to 17 when we moved her and now is down to 15! There was a really foul (no pun intended!) smell in the coop on Saturday, so when she got up I carefully moved all the eggs and put new hay in the nest box for her. (That's when I counted 15 eggs.) There was yolk on some of the remaining eggs and I found some shell (and yolk) in the hay that I took out. The coop smelled a lot better for a day, but yesterday the smell was back and was really strong.

Does it sound like some of her eggs are rotten? I know they should be hatching right about now. I have candled some of the eggs and have seen development but no movement. (I was hoping they were just shy!)

What should I look for at this point, and how long past today should I leave the eggs in there? I'm thinking if there aren't any eggs that hatch I'll put five or so under her and start counting from there.

I'm starting to get bummed about this. I was sooo hoping to have some babies.
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Some of the eggs were probably rotten, and have since exploded. The yuck from the exploding eggs could have ruined the whole batch, I had that happen once with marans eggs under a broody
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You can try the water trick to see if any are alive, or you can candle them once it gets dark. The water trick is simple, just take a bowl of warmer than the egg water, place the egg in the bowl, and wait till it settles. If it floats on top of the water (like a fishing bobber) it is no good. Good eggs will float as well, but they will also move. This is a result of the chick moving around inside the egg, so take any that do this and put them back under mama.

I would recommend getting some day-old chicks to put under her if all the eggs are bad, having her set another 3 weeks is not good for her. Plus you would then have brand-new chicks in the middle of October, when most places are getting kind of cool for brand-new ones to be outside. Though you are in TX, does it even get cold there?
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Good luck!!
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ETA: If you decide to try candling, a bad egg at this point would look very cloudy inside. A good egg, you should be able to see veins near the air cell, and possibly even see the baby moving in there
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I haven't been able to get the eggs from mama yet to be able to do a water test. I talked with someone today that said the eggs are probably bad, and not to leave them in there more than two or three more days.
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He has day olds so I'll get a few from him to give her.

My question now is... is it better to give the babies to her in the morning or evening or does it matter? Also, to get the old eggs out of the nest box, should I just grab her (as pissy as she may get) and take the eggs and replace with babies? Again, I've never done this before so I need all the help I can get.

Thank you!
 
Don't take her off the nest, just reach under her and take the eggs away and put the babies in there. It is best to do this at night, but you'll need to watch her in the morning to make sure she accepts them. She probably will, but there's always that chance.
 
I ended up having to take Mama out of the nest box so I could wash it out. It smelled soooo bad. It was nasty.
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None of the eggs hatched, so I did as suggested and got some day olds. Last night around 10 pm I gave her the new babies. She plopped down on them immediately! It was so sweet. I haven't seen them since. Every time I check on her she talks to me (probably telling me to go away!) and then I hear cheeps. So dang cute! I can't wait 'til they're running around with her.

I got 3 Polish, 3 BR, and 2 Ameracauna.

On the way home from the breeder:
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Mama on her new babies:
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Awww sorry about your eggs but the new chicks are cute... I've got a BO sitting on 11 eggs... due to start hatching this Wed. I hope we get some chickies............
 

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