24 eggs one nest to 9 to one the size of a quarter...

[GaNewChick]

I recently posted about my (sorta wild) hens sharing a nest with *mama* hen taking the duty of hatching. A few days after posting, something ate all but 9 (coon, I suspect) she is ok, although she still has a hurt wing. I brought the remaining 9 in, guessing that they had been scattered all around the nest from anywhere after dark to the next morning and would give them a try.

I've had 3 hatch today ~

(only 4 showed movement when I candled them). Sorry for the poor pictures. I'll have to get better pictures later.

But, I found this in the yard a little while ago, across the yard from the nest. Chicken egg? Should I candle it for the heck of it?

Caught this little one stretching ~

 

[Akane]

I had a broody get killed and all but 9 of her 2 dozen eggs smashed. The eggs sat who knows how long in our oddly cool summer weather before I put them in the bator around noon. Every egg that didn't candle clear hatched. Even the one that was probably 2weeks behind the others. Eggs withstand cool temperatures quite well.

As for the tiny egg it's probably a pullet egg or just a weird egg someone laid. Do you have bantams? My smaller bantams will lay eggs that size when they first start. Often eggs like that don't have yolks and are just whites. Although I cracked one open a few days back cause I need just a little more egg to balance out using another smaller than standard egg in a recipe and it turned out to have a mini yolk with white.