Broken egg among those incubating under a hen

[glochis]

Not sure what to do. I have a hen who went broody so I gave in and let her have fertilized eggs to sit on. It has been nine days and she has been very faithful to the nest. Today I found that one of them had broken and some of the others are now sticky. I removed the broken one (it had been developing). Do I just leave the rest alone or try to clean the sticky shells off??

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Tough call but I'd probably leave them alone if they're not too bad. I would worry about too many pores being blocked for oxygen transpiration..

 

[glochis]

I am hoping someone out there has had this happen and still been successful at hatching. I don't want to rinse them off or sand them to get some of the goop off.

 

[blondie34]

how much "goop" are we talking?

This happened to me but there wasn't too big of a mess, I just took a DRY paper towel and gently buffed the bad eggs when my broody got up to get a drink..

4/6 eggs hatched but I think one of them was a dud.. not sure if the other one didn't hatch because I "disturbed" the eggs or not but there wasn't a terrible amount of yoke on the remaining eggs..

good luck

hopefully they aren't too bad!