Broody on hatching eggs, from 24 down to 5???!!!!!! AHHHG!

[19hhbelgian]

My 2 broody hens have been sitting on 24 eggs for me. They are down to the last few days, and I'm down to 5 eggs! I have had multiple eggs burst (OH MY GOSH - NOTHING smells that bad - it's NOT right!!!), and other eggs just not fertile. I understand the whole non-fertile thing

, but not the bad eggs bursting. the non-fertile eggs were just that. They didn't burst. Was this a bad batch of eggs, or is this normal? These were the closest hatching eggs that I have bought, and it's going worse than the "long distance" eggs!

 

[gocrow77]

Wow I have no idea or experience with what you are going through. Have you candled the remaining eggs to check viability? Hope those last 5 are good ones and that they all hatch for you. Good luck!

 

[ibpboo]

The bad eggs that burst, did they have partially developed chicks in them?
If there are too many eggs under a hen, she can not keep them all covered well. This is what happened to me once, and some of the eggs had almost fully developed chicks, and then they got to the outer edge of her, and the chicks died before they could hatch. I was sad, one of the eggs that didn't make it was from my EE (Easter Egger) hen and the EE rooster that I had for a short time.

Good luck with the remaining eggs.

 

[19sarah90]

If you've got no developing chicks then they are either infertile or they were too old and didn't start developing. I doubt there was much damage during shipping, but that could also be a factor. This is definitely not normal. Twelve eggs under each hen shouldn't be too many. I've had hens successfully hatch 14-16 eggs at a time. I hope the remaining five hatch for you!

 

[19hhbelgian]

Thank you for your replies. I was so disappointed how this turned out, but I did ask for an incubator for my birthday (I'm totally addicted, and DH is enjoying it too he just won't admit it

), so I'll be able to have more control over the whole situation from now on. My hens are very good with the eggs, attentive with sitting and also turning. It's neat to see them doing what is natural, but this'll get really expensive quick with this kind of hatching rate!

for the remaining eggs!