Chick developing in freshly laid egg

[Wisher1000]

I have always assured my egg customers that they could never find a chick (or start of a chick) in my eggs because they are collected daily. I may have to stop saying that. I am not new to chickens, eggs, hatching, etc. I have been doing this for many years. I am a relatively intelligent person, but I am having a hard time figuring this one out.

I have been collecting eggs for hatching. I have a pen that I am particularly interested in raising chicks from, but of course, the hens in there are stingy with their eggs. I have been writing the dates on the eggs from that pen so that I can be sure to set them while they are fresh. I store them on the kitchen counter and tilt the carton several times a day. We keep it cool in our house and don't run the heat until it gets down to below 60 degrees. We turn on the AC if it hits 72.

I was getting a plastic bowl out of the overhead cabinet and one fell onto the tray of eggs, cracking one of those "important" eggs. It was marked 3/21 indicating that it was laid and collected that day. I marked it with a large "D" which is our sign for eggs that are okay to put in the dog's food. Thursday (3/27) my DH cracked the egg into the dog food and it contained a partially developed chick. It looked like the pics of three day old embryos except that the yolk was more tan than yellow and was firm and the size of a marble. It had veins on the outside of the yolk and the albumen was watery. The embryo was two lobed, with eye spots on one lobe, and it was just a bit larger than two BB's.

I know it was not overlooked in the nest box, there is only one nest in that pen and it is eagerly checked daily. It did not get warm enough outside to develop while in the nest nor while waiting on the counter. I guess it is possible that a hen sat on it all day if it was laid early, then collected late, but it sat on the counter for several days at well below the necessary incubation temp.

Is it possible that the hen held the egg inside her body long enough for it to start developing before it was laid? Has anyone ever heard of this before? From my research, it looked to be at about three days old. I'm at a loss...........

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Anything is possible but just taking a stab in the dark.
Perhaps the egg was somewhere else in the coop for a couple days and a hen sat on it.
Then they carried it to the nest.
Sounds crazy but I've had hens steal eggs from other broody nests. I would mark all the eggs and have different colored eggs in nests and the next day the eggs were in different nests. There were dividers between nests and they were about 12" above the floor so they couldn't have rolled them.
I have never witnessed it but a friend that is an animal behaviorist told me they tuck them under their wings to carry them.
What is the temperature in Alabama now? It's in the 20s here.

Holding the egg internally long enough to incubate, while possible, would indicate a severe problem.

 

[Pozees]

I'll second ChickenCanoe here - hens can be devious when they want to hatch a clutch of eggs. I set 49 eggs for a little girl 3 weeks ago, had one hatch on the 16th day and one half hatched on the 18th day as I moved the eggs to the hatcher. She has at least one hen trying to brood eggs, and obviously got it done for up to 5 days without her knowing, and she swears up and down (not actually cusses, you know what I mean

) she collects every day, so I think the same thing happened to her as to you, Wisher, and I think it happened the way ChickenCanoe describes. I have been told the same thing, that they tuck them under their wings just as a chick might get up there - if you have picked up a hen raising young chicks, you know how one can scare you dropping out from under the wing? That would be where they would carry an egg.

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low Wisher:

I keep "floor" eggs (use to be plastic Easter Eggs, but now golf balls) in my breeder pens to inhibit egg eaters (sore beaks from pecking what they "think" are delicious EGGS--so potential egg eaters will give up and leave real cackle berries alone!).

In 2008, I kept finding the one "floor" egg I had in the bantam Buff Brahma pen IN their bucket floor nest. I kept taking it out and putting it back on the floor where it is suppose to be...did this every time I was in the Buff Brahma pen...reach inside nest to collect eggs, remove dummy egg and toss on floor.

​

One day I was slow at leaving the Duece Coop and I had already been into the Brahma pen (five pens in that coop) and tossed the floor egg outa the bucket nest onto the floor.

​

I was taking longer than usual so I guess Hannibal got impatient and threw caution to the winds...things go on in the coops that maybe our naive human eyes should never observe? I paused and watched as Hannibal (she was broody...again!) stepped outta the nest, walked over to the floor egg and leaned over. She rolled that "egg" up her chest with her beak and had it tucked safely UNDER her chin. Yeh...she then carried the egg back into the bucket nest! Brahmas traditionally have a rather wide skull and head with a fleshy non-feathered dewlap that would be nice and grippy to help hold a tucked egg under their chinny chins quite nicely. Chickens may not have an opposable thumb but by no means does that result in them not being able to carry off eggs that need setting upon.

I wish way back then I had taken some photos of Hannibal doing this egg carrying business because I know nobody really truly believes my story.

Hmm, maybe now, I think maybe you, Wisher, may believe me perhaps? LOL

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[Wisher1000]

The hens in that pen (my SCs) were shipped here from a huge poultry outfit in MN and I believe they are old. They were in pretty rough shape when I got them and have slowly but surely improved in the last four months.

Having a hen with a "severe problem" would not be out of the question. I have gotten several wind eggs and a couple with albumin all over the shell.

If one laid the egg elsewhere in the pen and sat on it a few days, she did a good job of hiding that fact from me. I would love to see one carrying an egg (and like you said, get a pic of it!) I actually once saw a hen run out of the nest box and then the coop with an egg in her beak! When I went to investigate, she had speared it with her top beak and was supporting the weight with the bottom. She was an egg eater.

I have a pure SC cock over 3 pure SCs hens in that pen, and one that is half SC and half EE. She lays nearly every day but the others are sporadic. I just put two weeks worth of eggs from that pen in the bator (I'm slowing down my hatches for an upcoming vacation.) There were 12 of the 3/4 SC eggs and 6 of the pure SC eggs, so you see why they are precious to me.

I have no idea if they moved that egg or if it was something else, either way, it was strange. Thank you all for your input, I wasn't thinking of your suggestion but it is as likely (if not more

) as what I was thinking. That is why I asked, I was stuck.

While bizarre, I can see no other possible explanations. I have seen some strange behaviors in chicken (all animals, really) so I don't know why this surprises me. I just hope my egg customers don't get one like that.

 

[scottcaddy]

Heel low Wisher:

I keep "floor" eggs (use to be plastic Easter Eggs, but now golf balls) in my breeder pens to inhibit egg eaters (sore beaks from pecking what they "think" are delicious EGGS--so potential egg eaters will give up and leave real cackle berries alone!).

In 2008, I kept finding the one "floor" egg I had in the bantam Buff Brahma pen IN their bucket floor nest. I kept taking it out and putting it back on the floor where it is suppose to be...did this every time I was in the Buff Brahma pen...reach inside nest to collect eggs, remove dummy egg and toss on floor.

​

One day I was slow at leaving the Duece Coop and I had already been into the Brahma pen (five pens in that coop) and tossed the floor egg outa the bucket nest onto the floor.

​

I was taking longer than usual so I guess Hannibal got impatient and threw caution to the winds...things go on in the coops that maybe our naive human eyes should never observe? I paused and watched as Hannibal (she was broody...again!) stepped outta the nest, walked over to the floor egg and leaned over. She rolled that "egg" up her chest with her beak and had it tucked safely UNDER her chin. Yeh...she then carried the egg back into the bucket nest! Brahmas traditionally have a rather wide skull and head with a fleshy non-feathered dewlap that would be nice and grippy to help hold a tucked egg under their chinny chins quite nicely. Chickens may not have an opposable thumb but by no means does that result in them not being able to carry off eggs that need setting upon.

I wish way back then I had taken some photos of Hannibal doing this egg carrying business because I know nobody really truly believes my story.

Hmm, maybe now, I think maybe you, Wisher, may believe me perhaps? LOL

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

My DD has silkies and swears up & down that they will steal eggs from anyother nest for their own by tucking it under the chin, even will jump up into a nestbox if needed!

Scott (who isn't hungry now?)

 

[CanuckBock]

My DD has silkies and swears up & down that they will steal eggs from anyother nest for their own by tucking it under the chin, even will jump up into a nestbox if needed!

Scott (who isn't hungry now?)

Yah...not alone, not alone! Salvation in sheer numbers. Thank you!

BTW...serving cake and pie at the OFH...jest saying.

Tara

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I don't know for a fact how they carry them, but I do know for a fact that they do. Unless a snake eats them and regurgitates them in another nest.
I always mark eggs under setters and they show up in different nests.

 

[Triple Willow]

I have always assured my egg customers that they could never find a chick (or start of a chick) in my eggs because they are collected daily.  I may have to stop saying that.  I am not new to chickens, eggs, hatching, etc.  I have been doing this for many years.  I am a relatively intelligent person, but I am having a hard time figuring this one out.

I have been collecting eggs for hatching.  I have a pen that I am particularly interested in raising chicks from, but of course, the hens in there are stingy with their eggs.  I have been writing the dates on the eggs from that pen so that I can be sure to set them while they are fresh.  I store them on the kitchen counter and tilt the carton several times a day.  We keep it cool in our house and don't run the heat until it gets down to below 60 degrees.  We turn on the AC if it hits 72.

I was getting a plastic bowl out of the overhead cabinet and one fell onto the tray of eggs, cracking one of those "important" eggs.  It was marked 3/21 indicating that it was laid and collected that day.  I marked it with a large "D" which is our sign for eggs that are okay to put in the dog's food.  Thursday (3/27) my DH cracked the egg into the dog food and it contained a partially developed chick.  It looked like the pics of three day old embryos except that the yolk was more tan than yellow and was firm and the size of a marble.  It had veins on the outside of the yolk and the albumen was watery.  The embryo was two lobed, with eye spots on one lobe, and it was just a bit larger than two BB's.

I know it was not overlooked in the nest box, there is only one nest in that pen and it is eagerly checked daily.  It did not get warm enough outside to develop while in the nest nor while waiting on the counter.  I guess it is possible that a hen sat on it all day if it was laid early, then collected late, but it sat on the counter for several days at well below the necessary incubation temp.

Is it possible that the hen held the egg inside her body long enough for it to start developing before it was laid?  Has anyone ever heard of this before?  From my research, it looked to be at about three days old.  I'm at a loss...........

I sure am glad to find this thread!! Wisher, you are not crazy!!

I have three broodies in a pen to their selves. (All three broodies were one year old in March 2014 and in good health as far as I can tell.) Two just hatched out their eggs last week. About two days after they hatched out their eggs one started laying again. She laid an egg three days in a row. Usually she lays a large egg but these three eggs were jumbos. I collected them when they were laid and brought them in the house same as the other layer's eggs. Yesterday I decided to break one of the eggs to see if it was a double yolker or what.

Here is what was in the egg...

Notice the head at the top and the feet/legs at the bottom. The other two eggs have well developed chicks in them too. The hen must have has fertilized eggs inside her when she went broody and for some reason the chicks started developing. Very hard to believe but that is what happened. I also hope that I haven't sold anybody eggs like this!! I am buying or making a candler!!

 

[BCMaraniac]

I sure am glad to find this thread!! Wisher, you are not crazy!!

I have three broodies in a pen to their selves. (All three broodies were one year old in March 2014 and in good health as far as I can tell.) Two just hatched out their eggs last week. About two days after they hatched out their eggs one started laying again. She laid an egg three days in a row. Usually she lays a large egg but these three eggs were jumbos. I collected them when they were laid and brought them in the house same as the other layer's eggs. Yesterday I decided to break one of the eggs to see if it was a double yolker or what.

Here is what was in the egg...




Notice the head at the top and the feet/legs at the bottom. The other two eggs have well developed chicks in them too. The hen must have has fertilized eggs inside her when she went broody and for some reason the chicks started developing. Very hard to believe but that is what happened. I also hope that I haven't sold anybody eggs like this!! I am buying or making a candler!!

I don't see any other explanation for this. You moved her into that pen, right? I wonder if the stress of that might have caused her to ovulate and those eggs got fertilized by viable sperm in her reproductive tract, then developed. Has she laid any more eggs besides those three?