Cracked egg on day 1. Still candle day 7, 14 and 18 or do it sooner?

[Kelly Cassani]

Newbie to anything chicken. One of the eggs had a crack in it upon receiving them. The crack is at the pointed end of a Mosaic chicken egg. One small section (maybe 1/4") is visible with the naked eye and the rest with the candler. We sealed it with beeswax and put it in the incubator. Should I still wait 7 days to check it? Would it be more likely to explode because of the crack? I don't like fussing with things too much so rather leave them alone as much as possible but I don't wait to wait too long either. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Egg Snatcher]

Id try to hatch it. I had a egg with a pretty big crack in it and it did just fine of 21 days.

 

[Kirkwooder]

Cull the egg. Don't incubate it. It will likely become infected and may explode, making a huge stinky mess and possibly breaking other eggs.
I would dispose of it.

 

[Kiraeh]

I've hatched a day one cracked egg. It takes a while for an egg to get infected and explode- if you don't see development on day 7, just pull it. As long as you keep an eye on it. Cracked eggs often don't make it- especially if the crack was during shipping, that kind of rough handling does invisible damage too. But they can hatch.

If it's a white or cream egg, you'll be able to see if it's developing as early as day 3, but it won't explode by day 7 if you want to wait that long to be sure. If it does develop, I would check on it regularly through incubation, particularly in the last half, since it will be more vulnerable to infection.

Here's the crack that I got to hatch-didn't even need assisting:

 

[Birdie mom]

Usually cracked eggs don't hatch, but it won't do much damage to keep it in there for a few more days.

 

[Mellowmalt]

I have some white eggs for the first time and I was amazed to see a tiny heart heating away at 5 days. I've nver really paid too much attention after checking for spider vein formation. It will definetely not explode after 5 days but just sniff it every day to be safe. It will start to smell before it explodes giving you days of warning so leave it and check it after 5 days.

 

[Trisseh]

It really depends on the crack. If it’s just the shell and the membrane is intact, you have a better chance of everything going as planned. If the membrane is damaged, that gives bacteria etc an opening to get in there and chances of a stinky bad egg is higher. I’ve had eggs that were cracked pretty badly hatch just fine; and I’ve had some that I’ve pulled because they had blood rings or didn’t develop at all. I’ve never left an egg long enough for it to go bad in there though, as I’m a somewhat obsessive candler. Lol.

 

[JaeG]

I'm incubating a cracked egg from my own flock. It's cracked almost from top to bottom. I put some glue on the crack and as of day 15 it's still alive and growing well.

I would check on it just the same as your other eggs. Good luck with the hatch.

 

[Kelly Cassani]

Thanks! I'll let you know on day 7 how its going. I don't think the membrane would have been damaged so fingers crossed. The farmer said I could replace the egg but we were all too curious not to at least try to save this one!!