Broken Egg - Not sure how far along!

[JDrake]

I was checking on my broody hen today and discovered a egg that has accidently gotten knocked around and broken. Part of the shell is now missing (about the size of a quarter) and the white membrane that holds the shell together is torn. There is a tin amount of blood and it appears the chick is STILL alive!

I am not sure how many more days it has but I would like to give it the best chance at survival possible. I have put a small amount of clear plastic wrap over the hole and taped it to the shell. I currently have the egg tucked under my shirt to keep it warm. I don't own an incubator!

Anyone have any advice to share on what I can do or if I should do something different? I can't see any details of the chick other than what seems to be a joint when it moves at times.... I can't see any yolk or beak or anything but blackness (black chick)

 

[SunHwaKwon]

I had one crushed with shell missing and it hatched fine. Do you have an incubator to move it to so it's protected?

 

[JDrake]

Well it's been a few days now and the chick is STILL somehow alive! I've been keeping it warm by holding it close to my body under my shirt etc. At night I put it under a heating pad with a layer of crotched blankets and a wet hand towel for humidity set on LOW for a couple of hours so I could catch a few Zzz's....

I still am not sure how much longer before it hatches.... hoping soon bc this is rough..... I just can't bring myself to let it die though.....

 

[mirandaleecon]

I would take that plastic wrap off. If the internal membrane is not still intact, it is breathing now and that plastic wrap will suffocate it.
Can you post some updated pictures, preferably without the plastic? If you can see any of the internal membrane, are there veins visible? Is the membrane white? If it's white, you should moisten it with some antibiotic ointment WITHOUT pain relief so that it doesn't get shrink wrapped. Just don't get any in their nostrils.

 

[JDrake]

the plastic has been removed most of the way but as I tried to remove it - parts of the shell came off with the tape.... the plastic was only covering the hole and not the entire egg so it can breath just fine with it still attached... I didn't want to pull off more of the shell to remove it completely and I also worried about the hole drying out too much as well.

It appears to be working on pipping... I hear pecking and can see it moving. The plastic has kept it from drying out so the inner membrane is still moist. It is too dark to be able to see any veins or not as the chick is black colored.

 

[JDrake]

currently working on unzipping! Yay! So glad I was able to save this baby! These are my very first batch of eggs hatched out ever!

 

[mirandaleecon]

How did it go? Sorry I didn't notice your post until now...If the hen you got the egg from hatched some chicks on her own, you should be able to slip this chick in with them and she will raise it. Just wait until after dark when she is sleepy...

 

[JDrake]

The chick is doing good so far! It is kinda complicated with what to do now. I might have to raise this one with 2 others that hatched yesterday. These eggs were newer than the eggs that the hen had been sitting on. There were 12 total and 6 of those hatched last week with the hen. (She had started out with 7 and somehow magically ended up with 12 and then I moved her to her own pen so new eggs would stop appearing) She stopped sitting on them after the 6 hatched. In the meantime.. another hen went broody and started sitting on some eggs too. I am really low on hens right now (only 3) so I am wanting to hatch out as many as I can. I don't want to put these 3 new chicks under the newer broody hen because I am scared she will stop sitting on HER eggs.... and the other chicks are now a week old and I don't know if the original broody hen will take in these 3 that *were* originally hers that I had to rescue because she had been kicking them around in her house digging around with her hatchlings. I had stuck the 6 knocked around eggs to continue baking under the other broody hen and took the one out when I saw it had a big crack/hole in it. I incubated it myself by holding it all the time as I do not own an incubator to put them in. I took out the other 2 eggs that hatched when I saw a pip on them to try to keep the broody hen sitting on her eggs.

I kept the other 2 eggs with the broken egg with a heating pad and damp towel while they finished hatching. These three are now set up with a heat lamp in my basement. I am going to try to get the original hen to adopt them by removing all the chicks and putting them with these 3 and then returning them ALL to her at the same time in hopes she will just take them in? She is a bit aggressive and will still peck in the middle of the night if she sees me... so I don't think I will be able to sneak them under her at night.... any thoughts?

Worse case is I raise these 3 under the heat lamp.... I am up to 9 total hatched chicks. There are 2-3 eggs close to hatching I am waiting to steal away from the original batch... and 6 with the new broody that still have a couple weeks left.

 

[mirandaleecon]

The hen who already has chicks just might take the new ones. I once had a hen who I didn't realize had let every other hen lay eggs in her nest. She ended up with about 25 eggs under her! All different stages of development. I took them all from her and put them in the incubator. When the first couple pipped, I placed them under her to hatch. After that, I just let them hatch in the incubator and gave them to her every night for about a week. I finally stopped giving them to her after I gave her about 12. She ended up stealing another hens chicks as well and ended up with 18!

If it were me, I would still try to slip them under her tonight. She won't want to expose her chicks so she will most likely stay seated. Very quickly just lift her wing slightly and shove the chicks under there. Wear gloves if you think she might peck hard enough to break skin. Step back and observe. More than likely she will wiggle her butt to get situated and cluck softly to calm her babies. If she starts to look under her and growl, she might not be willing to accept them. I've only had this happen when they don't already have chicks. Usually, once they have a couple, they will take as many as they can get. You should also try to get out there when the sun rises to make sure she doesn't reject them when she wakes up and to make sure they don't get left behind. Sometimes when there is a little bit of age difference with the chicks, the younger ones have a harder time keeping up at first. After a day or two they will be right with the pack.

I would not try to put them under the hen that just started sitting. In my experience, if they haven't been sitting long enough (the time it would take for an egg to hatch), they will not accept chicks.

Also, it would be a good idea to get an incubator for these situations. You can find them for fairly cheap or you could build one yourself for even cheaper. If you are only going to use it for these kind of situations, you won't need to get anything fancy. I have been able to save many abandoned eggs by having a back up incubator...

 

[stuckinthecity]

I've also heard that there is a less likely chance of her accepting new chicks if the color is noticeably different. example would be if she had all yellow chicks and you were trying to give her all black chicks. Hopefully (and most likely) she will accept the extra biddies. I would love to see pics

eta: just noticed the date of the last post. How did it go???