Bizarre turn with eggs under a broody - need advice

verlaj

Songster
10 Years
Jan 31, 2009
790
17
159
Micanopy, Florida
I ordered eggs to give to a broody hen - gave them to her on Saturday night. All was well - until today when I went to check the eggs to be sure she wasn't laying any more. One accidentally fell out of the nest, but one was missing - no trace of it. Thought a snake must have gotten in there.

After dinner, my dear husband went out with me to snake proof the broody box - opened the box and found a huge rat snake in there, having just swallowed an egg! My beloved caught the snake and squeezed that egg back out of its mouth - intact! I took the egg inside and wiped it off - was going to give it back to the broody, but thought maybe that was not a good idea, because I think snakes' mouths are loaded with bacteria. Put it inside by its lonesome in my unused incubator (which rapidly stabilized at 99 degrees - no decimals on my thermometer). Incubator was not preheated and it has no water in it.

Removed the hen from the nest, removed the eggs and set them aside in a box of shavings, covered with paper towels, while the security measures were being installed. While holding the hen, she expelled the poop she had been holding for days - onto the box of eggs!!! What are the odds? Fortunately, the paper towels caught most of the poop, although some of the eggs did get some on them.

I wiped them off with clean paper towels - while doing so, found traces of broken eggs on the outside - must have been from the snake visit that took the missing egg. Gave the dry eggs back to the hen, who must be rattled beyond belief, what with the enormous snake, the disturbance of her nest, the air compressor and staple gun...

Questions for the experts and experienced:

1. Did I do the correct thing by removing the egg that was forcibly regurgitated by the snake?
2. Should any of the eggs be cleaned in any way other than wiping off with a clean, dry paper towel? (Cleaned of poop, broken egg residue, or snake saliva?)
3. Should I add water to the incubator? I live in Florida - no A.C. as yet - cheap hygrometer in the room (for my daughter's hermit crabs) reads 55-60% humidity. Local weather online says 61% humidity currently. Have been reading about dry incubation - the egg in the incubator is an Ameraucana egg.

This is my first time with shipped eggs, and first time using an incubator (Brinsea Octagon 20 Eco with the rocking cradle).
 
1. Did I do the correct thing by removing the egg that was forcibly regurgitated by the snake?

Yes, but you shouldn't have put in in the bator if it is styrofoam. Styrofoam incubators hold onto bacteria even after you clean it. Don't clean bators with bleach, I use Tektrol that is a fungicide and keeps mold and bacteria down in bators.

2. Should any of the eggs be cleaned in any way other than wiping off with a clean, dry paper towel? (Cleaned of poop, broken egg residue, or snake saliva?)

I have seen some pretty nasty eggs hatch, but you might have an issue if they got really wet. Bacteria from the broken yolk is the biggest problem because it seeps into the pores and dries, this can suffocate the chick.

3. Should I add water to the incubator? I live in Florida - no A.C. as yet - cheap hygrometer in the room (for my daughter's hermit crabs) reads 55-60% humidity. Local weather online says 61% humidity currently. Have been reading about dry incubation - the egg in the incubator is an Ameraucana egg.

Needs to be 50% in the 99F - the temp of the bator. 50% humidity at 75F is not the same. Humidity inside the bator is not = to what is outside.

This is my first time with shipped eggs, and first time using an incubator (Brinsea Octagon 20 Eco with the rocking cradle).

Because of both of these reasons, your chances of getting a good hatch are slim with such chaos that the egg has gone through. Hope for the best but be prepared to not get a chick from that one egg. Shipped eggs have 50-75% hatch for most people, and need to be able to settle for 24 hours before incubating them or they have issues, and new bators usually take trial and error. Considering it's survival so far, I am hopeful she'll hatch and be your best chicken yet.

I really commend you for being able to function after a finding a snake. I'd be posting my house for sale for sure. I hope you are able to hatch some beautiful new babies too.
 
During my broody's lockdown I moved her to my house, I picked her up to check the eggs, I candled twice, and I found my cat sleeping on her cage. Oh, and I washed one of her eggs that she pooped all over, it was disgusting. A snake is most likely a little more nerve racking, but I bet yours settles right back in. Mine hatched out 9, the others were not developed. I wouldn't wash the egg, just wipe it off.

I think the humidity in your incuabator is probably ok for incubation. You probably want it to go up to 70 during lockdown. Can you put the hygrometer in the incubator just to make sure?

It will be interesting to see if the snake egg hatches. I have no idea what kind of bacteria is in a snakes mouth, and could it possible be dirtier than the nest? My hen that is broody right now has the other chickens roosting on the edge of her nest and they poop in there all night long. I clean it out every morning, but still...

My EE seemed to hatch the best. I hope the same for you. Candleing should tell all.
 
Thanks, both of you, for your help and detailed replies.

I did let the eggs rest for 24 hrs before giving them to the hen. I followed the instructions on bevmarans website - turning a 1/4 turn periodically over the 24 hrs.

The incubator is hard plastic, not styrofoam.

We were expecting a snake - but I have to say, I was not my best when I found this very large rat snake in the nest, in the process of consuming an egg, hen excitedly clucking! Glad my husband was there, and a manly man at that! Bless him - we were up past midnight trying to secure the broody nest from more snake attacks.

I will continue on - started with 13 eggs, snake ate one, regurgitated one (in the incubator) and I was the cause of 2 more getting broken (won't go into details on that). So we are down to 10 eggs, 9 under the hen. One of the ones that got broken had no visible blood spot after about 44 hrs under the hen; the other did have a visible blood spot a few hours later. At least I'm thinking one that got broken wasn't fertile anyway.

If you think I should try to wipe off any of the shiny residue that is on some of the eggs that I think is broken egg, please let me know.

I can put the hygrometer in the incubator - and will see if I can get a better one than I have. Will read more about dry incubation maybe - seems many BYCers use that method.
 
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This morning, the hen was on the nest, continuing her duties despite the ruckus. I didn't bother her to see how many eggs were there (whether we had another snake breach the defenses) because the last 2 times I lifted her off the nest, I ended up with a broken egg. ( I think she must have had an egg tucked under a wing and then it fell out - fortunately not on the nest at least.)

I put the hygrometer in the incubator where the lone egg is - read 20% humidity - so I put water in one trough per the Brinsea instructions. Will have to check later to see where it is.

Does anyone know whether it is better to leave the eggs alone now or try to clean off what looks like dried egg on the outside of parts of the shell? Don't know how that would have gotten on them - but that's what it looks like. I thought a snake swallowed the egg whole then crushed it - but not only are there spots that look like dried egg, but there are a few bits of broken shell on them. No broken shell or moisture in the nest, though. Maybe if the shell was thin it might have broken while a snake was eating it? The missing egg is a marans egg; those eggs are pretty big, and the one that dropped and broke last night seemed to have a pretty thin shell (and there was a visible blood spot - sob!).
 
Will let things be for now - thought maybe the hen could have broken the egg - but it would be a strange coincidence that we found the giant snake in there last night.
 
Amazing story. I wanted to ask about the hygrometer--has it been calibrated? If not you'll need to do it, they can be off by a lot sometimes.

1. Take a coffee cup or small bowl--1/2 cup salt mixed into a sludge with 1/4 cup water
2. Place bowl/cup with salt mixture in large ziploc freezer bag and put the hygrometer beside it in the bag.
2. Seal the bag and leave it for 12-24 hours.
4. Hygrometer should (but won't) read 75%

Mine read 71% so I have to add 4 to what it says when I'm using it in the bator. If it had read 84% in the bag I would -9 whenever I use it.
 
Thanks so much for the info on the hygrometer. The one I had is a real cheapie - sold by PetsMart to put in with hermit crabs. I will test it tonight. I had asked Brinsea on the phone about a hygrometer and the man I spoke to said they didn't sell them because they didn't know of one the was reliable enough to suit them. He suggested buying one at RadioShack.

Brinsea literature that came with the incubator suggested putting water in one trough for incubation. It also said weighing the eggs over time and charting the weight loss was the best way of knowing whether the eggs were too dry or too wet. I guess I will do that too. It's a learning experience I was expecting just yet!
 

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