Day 21 and nothing but exploding eggs...yuck!

[JPichler]

Today is day 21 for my broody hen Dorothy and so far nothing but exploding eggs...rotten, green, gross. Is there any hope? She is a very protective broody...I can barely change food and water without her pecking me....will these exploding eggs spoil the rest? What do I do???? Please help!!!!! If there are rotten ones, does that mean the rest are as well. I have no clue what to expect.

J Pichler

 

[cochins1088]

There is hope for the rest of the eggs. I've had chicks hatch as late as 26 days in the past. Normally I would say to clean the rest of the eggs after something like that, but since they are so close to hatching, I would probably wait it out. How many eggs have exploded? To find out if you have chicks or just a bunch of rotton eggs, candle them. Just take a regular flashlight and shine it in the egg, it the egg is completely dark other than the air sac and you see movement, then it's a good egg, and at day 21, you will most likely see beaks breaking into the air sac. Bad eggs will also usually appear dark, but there will be no movement, and no beak, and will stink. I realize everything around her probably stinks right now, but the smell is fairly strong. Also anything that isn't dark can be thrown with confidence at day 21. If you find good eggs while candling, I would probably wipe them down, but don't scrub too hard and don't submurge them under water. Most likely they will end up stinky again anyways cause I imagine the hen if full of it as well, after they are done hatching, you should probably bathe her.

 

[JPichler]

One has exploded for sure (she tossed it out) and my husband thought he heard another explode a little bit ago. And I can't even imagine candling anything right now with Dorothy being so mean and I really do not want one to explode on me...I think I will be waiting it out.

 

[LovinChicknFarmn]

We had one explode and then had 3 chicks hatch. We're waiting to see if anything else hatches as they started hatching out yesterday. So, you may have some good ones in there. Good luck.