cracked hatching egg

[Dianne Walker]

hi there, i have 4 broody hens ....i dont want a lot of birds and ive been given 10 eggs which ive shared out between them ...i didnt mark them , then found an extra one in there next day ....its day 3 and one of them was cracked because one of the hens had taken all of them and moved them down a level , im surprised there wasnt more casualties , ive painted the crack with nail varnish and marked them all with cross now including the infertile one cos i couldnt tell the difference ....whats the chances of these eggs being ok as the greedy bird that had taken all the eggs hadnt covered them all very well and some were cooler than the others will they carry on developing as its so early in the incubation period or is it gonna be a waste of their time and and energy ? ive shared them out between 3 of them and blocked the drop down level ....any ideas anyone.......thankyou

 

[nchls school]

The cracked egg most likely will not hatch. The others still have a good chance depending on how long and how cold they became. If you know how, or know someone that does, the eggs can be candled fairly reliably on the sixth or seventh day of incubation to check for viability/development. Should the eggs have failed, new/fresh fertile eggs can be given to the hens to hatch. Good luck.

 

[Chickassan]

The cracked egg might not make it due to the varnish that stuff is pretty gnarly. Elmers white glue or wax is great for fixing cracks just for future reference. The other eggs really might be ok due to them being so early on. All you can do is try, best of luck to you.