My Buff Orpington hen, Rose has been setting for several weeks now. She started out with 4 eggs, but the other hens kept "giving" her more eggs & she wound up with 15! She is only about a year old, so this is her first time being broody. She has not figured it out yet & has broken about 4 or 5 eggs & half of the time, she will push some of the eggs out of the box & only sit on a few. Well, finally a baby hatched 2 days ago and one is pipping now! While checking on the chick & the pipping chick, I noticed that one egg had a huge section cracked off of one end! It is about the size of a nickel, but the membrane is not punctured. I am afraid to put it under Rose because she has been so rough with her eggs & the other hens keep getting in her box & they push the eggs around. I am afraid they will puncture the membrane or break the egg more. I can see the chick through the membrane, it is moving & appears very close to being fully developed. I can see its head & its beak. I do not think it is ready to come out because I can see a little bit of blood. What in the world can I do? I do not have an incubator & being Sunday, my feed store is closed or I would go buy one right now! Right now, I have the egg in a plastic storage tote with a lamp over it (the lamp I used for my baby chicks). Then, I covered part of the tote with a metal cookie sheet to keep some of the heat in. Also, I put a jar of water in for some humidity, but I think I am going to swap out for a tray of water with a sponge in it. Will this work as a incuabtor for now? I do have an old aquarium in my storage shed & I thought about getting that out & using it, or would a cooler work better? I would really appreciate any advice or ideas. I want this egg to make it!
Do you have a thermometer in there so you can monitor the temperature? I don't know what else to tell you, I'm incubating my first batch of eggs now. I would put a barrier of some kind around the nest, so the other hens can't get into the eggs for now. Or block off that section of the house. Probably give the hen enough room to move around, but keep the others out. The sponge would work, I have a couple in my bator as I have an egg partially hatched. I would think you'd want to keep that membrane soft and not let it dry out. Do you know what day the egg is on?
I had this thread marked for when I want to try my hand at incubating. Good luck! https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=4526393
backyyard chickens had something about making incubators the link https://www.backyardchickens.com/chicken-coop-incubator.html
I use aquariums as my brooders. If it were me, I would set up the aquarium for just this baby. Get your heat lamps in, add sponges for extra moisture (you may have to wrap the membrane with a wet paper towel or washcloth) and let the baby finish up. Aquariums are great because they retain heat and moisture well (when you need it that is a plus) I have helped several along this way with success. In my opinion, the aquariums have the very big added advantage of being clear which tends to add stability temp wise. (you won't be looking in the dang thing by taking off the lid constantly)
