Broody hen's eggs covered in broken egg white

[MaryZoe]

One of my broodies (I just had two go broody--whoo hoo!) pecks at anything that comes near her. Apparently she pecked at an egg that another chicken laid in her nest. By the time I got to her in the evening, the egg's insides had been smeared over most of the eggs in her nest. I know the shells are porous, so I know this is less than ideal, but has anyone experienced this and still had a successful hatch? I would hate for poor Marshmallow to sit for 21 days and have no little chicks to tend as her reward. I could always switch out her eggs and give her today's collection to start all over. She's been on the eggs about a week now, and this happened a couple days ago. I suppose I could candle them, but I usually just let nature take its course with my broodies. Thoughts?

 

[sumi]

I once had a broody hen break an egg in her nest, smearing the contents all over herself, the eggs and the nesting materials. I removed the half-incubated eggs and carefully scrubbed them as clean as I could get them under warm (not hot!) running water, before drying them and putting them back under her, with clean bedding. Every single one of those eggs hatched, fine and on time. IMO leaving them covered in gunk is probably more risky to the embryos than getting washed, so I'd clean them.

 

[BullChick]

Sumi is totally right about the need to clean them. The dirty situation will turn stinky and germy in a few days, and kill the embryos.
It is typically suggested that you attempt to keep as much of the bloom on the egg as possible. That means if an egg isn’t too dirty, just wipe what you must.

 

[Kessel23]

When one of my hens goes broody I put store bought eggs under her, then I separate out a small breeding flock of 1 rooster and 5 hens. I wait a few days, get a reasonable amount of eggs and then swap them with the store eggs. This insures that all eggs are fertile and the breed of chicken I want, but you will also need to seperate the broody from the rest of the flock, put her in a cat cage or somewhere that she can not be pushed around by other hens when she is brooding.

 

[MaryZoe]

Thanks for the responses. I guess I will try to clean the eggs, though it's been at least 4-5 days by now, so the embryos might be damaged/dead by now. I have about 24 or 25 hens and 2 active roosters (2 more in a stag pen). My eggs are almost always fertile. Can't remember when I last found an infertile egg, so no need to separate out a breeding group. I am happy with whatever surprise combinations I end up with. I usually find those chickens more hearty and fun than the pure breeds that I have.

Sure enough, Marshmallow's broodiness was contagious and I have another broody hen at the moment. So even if Marshy's hatch is unsuccessful, I'll have a few more close after hers.

 

[Morrigan]

All is not lost with dirty eggs. I had a rotten egg explode under a broody after the 2 week mark. It was a stinking mess. I replaced the straw in her nest, gently dry wiped the eggs off as best I could (I was afraid to wash them), put them back under her, and hoped. Three out of seven eggs hatched. I also had a broody who broke an egg under her. She ate the broken egg and I never did anything to the egg-smeared 4 eggs that were left. I was brand new to chicken keeping, and it never occurred to me to wash them. 2 of the 4 hatched, and I'm not sure the other 2 were even fertile to begin with.

 

[MaryZoe]

Interesting. I've had many broody hatches and I've hatched lots in incubators, but I'd never had the broken egg shenanigans. My instinct was to leave it alone and see what happens, but after the previous responses I went ahead and washed and replaced the eggs. Fingers crossed!