Abandoned egg

[Dutchchick]

My broody hen has been sitting on three eggs for about 21 days, and this afternoon moved one eggs from underneath her and added a fresh one under her to sit on. The separated egg was cold by the time i found it, i took it out and put it in the incubator together with the other freshly laid egg. What chance is there that the chick inside the abandoned egg is still alive. It has been separated for about 8 hours and was rather cool to touch.

 

[ChicKat]

There may be a chance, but sometimes the hen will remove an egg because she knows it isn't viable. There may be a crack that is invisible to us, or it could have gotten a bacterial infection...etc.

Good luck with it---post back to say if it does hatch.

 

[Dutchchick]

Thanks for that, i thought something like that too. I'll keep you posted.

 

[Dutchchick]

None of the eggs hatched. A day or so later mummy chicken left all eggs and despite the fact that we put them in the incubator as well, none of the eggs hatched. Now have 3 fresh eggs in the incubator which hopefully will hatch sometime next week..

 

[ChicKat]

Good luck with your hatch. At least the incubator is a more human controlled environment and we know that it won't abandon the eggs. :O)