Eggs left alone for 12 hours without a broody hen, can they survive?

[stepheuniie]

Hello everyone!

This morning when I went to see my chickens, I found that my broody hen had traversed to the other section of the coop and couldn't go back to her eggs. She has her own section in the coop for brooding as she's the smallest of the hens by far (a Silkie) and tends to get picked on. We saw her leaving her eggs yesterday around 10PM to eat, so it might have happened at that moment or after. She went back to her eggs as soon as we helped her back.

The eggs are around 1 week old and might've been left alone for 12 hours, or maybe less if it happened later at night. Is there a chance they survived? It's around 5ºC outside, and there's a heat lamp in the coop close to her nesting box (it's not necessary anymore but they seem to enjoy it so we had decided to leave it there for a little longer). So it's quite warm inside the coop.

If they died, will she know and stop covering them? Or do we have to wait until the end of the 21 days to know for sure?

Thanks for your help!!

 

[peepdaddy]

Since you don't know for sure how long the eggs were uncovered I'd hope for the best and let her keep setting. I don't believe hens know when embryos die. I've had hens that I let set for several days longer than I thought they need then broke up the nest and found nothing but rotten eggs. I've even had hens go broody and cover fake eggs!