Hatching chick with egg full of maggots 🤮

[DownARiver12]

I just had the freakiest thing ever happen!! I have been out of town for 3 days and came back home and told my husband I thought maybe there was a rotten egg under our broody hen. So I went to candle it tonight and saw the egg had begun to unzip and figured the chick died and was beginning to decompose. So I begin to open it up and maggots began spilling out and the chick started peeping!!! I immediately started pulling the shell off it and more and more maggots came out. I could have vomited right there but the chick was breathing and just couldn’t leave it like that. I pulled it out and it looked perfectly normal. I put some ointment on it’s umbilical cord (looked totally normal by the way but just as a precaution) and stuck it back under the broody hen. There are three other eggs that were pipped but had not unzipped. Is this a freak thing? I’ve hatched A LOT of chicks under hens and I have never seen this before. I’m totally freaked out.

 

[AltonaAcres]

 

[Gtstricky]

 

[CSolis]

Golly, wonder how they got inside the egg!

 

[em_dawson]

They may have already been hanging around... Or a fly may have landed on the egg when it first started to zip, attracted to the fluids, and laid their eggs. It only takes 24 hours for the fly larvae to hatch. Perhaps you hatched eggs within hatching eggs. I think it goes without saying to keep your eyes on the other hatching babies in case maggots invade those ones. Once they're all out of their eggs, I'd see if you can take a peek inside the nest to see if there's any lingering poop or bigger cause of the maggots. (If mama allows it, lol.) Otherwise I'd guess a fly laid their eggs right there, gross. Glad the baby's okay. That sounds horrifying!

Edit: I'd be worried about maggots on mama's bottom/vent if she's been sitting on these eggs. Perhaps worried for nothing, but it might be worth checking out. Flystrike isn't very fun.

 

[CSolis]

I've been looking in other threads and they may not be maggots at all, but another type of worm. Search the forums for worms in eggs. May be your hens need worming.

 

[DownARiver12]

Oh gosh! I never thought about that! I will definitely check her tomorrow and see. The nest was clean when I peaked in but I live in the south and the flies have been horrible this year with all the rain and humidity. I hope those other eggs aren’t full too. I hope they hatch tonight and save me the trouble.

 

[DownARiver12]

Ugh one of the chicks died. It had maggots coming out of its eyes. The one that hatched out of the gross egg isn’t looking good either. I took it inside and put it on a heating pad and tried to give it some electrolytes. I’m so grossed out. My nest is very clean. I just replaced the hay to make sure and the hen looks nice and clean. She is still sitting on 4 eggs and 4 other chicks are running around healthy and happy as can be. This is the weirdest thing I have ever experienced. It was like a horror movie.

 

[Hucklekree]

I don't know what I would even do if that happened to me! This definitely sounds like a horror movie. I wonder what happened and how this possible.

 

[ariri30]

Omg I would freak out!