This is when it really helps to have an incubator. Last year when a hen appeared to be done hatching and abandoned the last few eggs, I picked up the eggs and started to toss them in my wood pit. The first egg broke and had little legs dangling down and kicking. I crawled in the pit after it and took it and the other eggs to the house.Ok a was able to move her and get her to stay, but not without a exploded rotten egg. So now I️ have a whole new dilemma. As my hen was frantically trying to remove the exploded egg from the nest, she stomped on one of the eggs and smashed it. It is not internally pipped, the membrane is still intact and the poult is still alive for now. Is there any way to save it or will I️ have to watch it die? It is moving around a lot, but half the egg shell has been smashed in. The air sac is completely collapsed. There are no liquids leaking from it anywhere. The egg shell remnants fell off upon picking it up. Please tell me there is something I️ can do!
Thanks!
DC
I turned on the hatcher. Finished taking the poult out of the shell (yolk had been absorbed) and put it in the hatcher. I candled the other three eggs and two were internally pipped while the last was rotten. I added the two viable eggs to the hatcher and disposed of the rotten egg. The last two eggs hatched and the busted egg poult also survived with some further help.
If you have a way to set something up to keep the poult warm and moist, go for it. If you try to give it back to the hen, it is not very likely to make it.
Good luck.