Thanks ChicKat! I will be happy with 2, anything else is pure gravy and cause for celebration for sure. I guess have low expectations after having so many disasterous hatches!Hopefully you will have your happiest B-day ever, and lots of cute little chicks to celebrate it with you!. They are due to hatch on my 50th birthday so either I really will have something to celebrate or I will be having a really suck-y birthday. I'll keep y'all posted as the eggs develop....or not.
I wasn't intending on setting it, there's no way it's not contaminated. And it would get crushed under the weight of the broody and I had an egg break last year under Autumn and it was really gross! I am saving for now as a color reference. I suspect it had a hairline fracture-- the kind where it gets a hard landing on another egg in the nest-- before it left the breeder that expanded when the pressure dropped in shipping. Good advice on your part.I would pitch that egg, if it went bad either in the incubator or under a broody it could ruin your whole hatch. Not many things ickier than a broody covered with rotten egg.