broody hen...first time for us

[jengroh]

We have a broody Silkie who decided to sit on 4 eggs, of course we didn't mark them, and within a few days she had 8 eggs, so we marked all those. Today one had a crack in it, not from the baby chick, I am not for sure what happened, but when I checked it with a light, it was all black so we threw it away. I just checked all the other 7. 4 for sure are in week 2, the other 3 are shortly behind...next week will be 21 days (on Saturday Sept 5th). This makes the 4 for sure 12 days, and the others 9-10 days along. All 7 have veins, and 4 have movement and like black little eyes or something that comes to the egg shell. Anyhow, some air sacks are small and one is kind of larger than the rest. All but this one are at the end of the egg, the one is at the end and then comes down further. Its a bigger sack. Should I be concerned about the big air sack, or be concerned with the smaller air sacks? Or not concerned at all. The eggs will be Polish Buff Lace if this makes a difference?

Thank you for helping me

 

[aart]

The only real concern is that she might not sit until all the eggs are hatched because some are a few days 'behind'.

Only time will tell.

You could have an incubator heated up to put the unhatched eggs in if she leaves the nest with the chicks already hatched.

I wouldn't worry about the air cells, there's nothing you can do about it anyway.
No reason to keep candling either, might cause more harm than good, just let her finish the job.

Best of cLuck to yas!