Hatching eggs trouble shoot

[MomGrowsFood]

Back story:

my black hen went broody with 10 eggs. Of these 10 eggs, only two hatched. When she went broody, I selected which eggs I wanted her to incubate and gave her all my amerucauna and olive egger eggs. She also had one egg that I think she laid herself. None of the Amerucauna eggs hatched. There were only a few and they got squished by another hen who decided to go broody in the same nest before I made her a new nest and confined her in it for 2 days (with a few breaks).
of the remaining eggs, her own egg hatched and one Olive egg hatched. All the other Olive eggers didn't make it.
one egg exploded early. It wasn't very old so I thought that was really weird. One egg wasn't even fertilized.
All the others died during incubation either 1/2way through or right before their hatch date.
one of these pipped and chipped the shell but couldn't get out and died. I should have helped but I've never done this before and second guessed myself.
My question is....since the mortality rate for the olive eggers specifically seems high, would this be an issue with the mother or did maybe the brooding hen just not do that great of a job? She is a first timer.

 

[PippinTheChicken]

All hatches go differently, there isn't always a cause for problems. Maybe the exploded egg contaminated the other eggs.

 

[Ridgerunner]

they got squished by another hen who decided to go broody in the same nest. one egg exploded early. It wasn't very old so I thought that was really weird.

I think this was your problem, you may have done well to get two chicks. I had an egg under a broody hen get broken with raw egg getting on some of the other eggs. That specific egg had a thin shell, I think it broke when the broody hen was walking on the eggs getting on or off of the nest. That raw egg allowed bacteria to get inside the other eggs.

The egg material is a perfect food for bacteria to eat as they grow and multiply. Scientists often use egg to feed bacteria they grow in the lab or when they are making some vaccines. Incubating temperature is the perfect temperature for bacteria to grow. It doesn't take long for the bacteria inside the egg to grow. Then the exploding egg contaminated the others. I did not get any to hatch when that egg broke under my broody. You at least got two.

since the mortality rate for the olive eggers specifically seems high, would this be an issue with the mother or did maybe the brooding hen just not do that great of a job? She is a first timer.

While anything is possible I'd think it had more to do with those broken eggs than the hen that laid the eggs or with the hen trying to incubate them. I know you read a lot about first time broody hens on this forum but I've usually had great luck with first time broody hens. I've had bad luck with hens that have been broody before, even if they successfully raised chicks before. I know there are many people on this forum that I respect that will tell you to not let a first time broody hatch, but that has not been my experience.

 

[MomGrowsFood]

Thank you! That's super helpful. I feel bad for the momma hen, she's been such a wonderful momma so far.

 

[bhaugh]

10 eggs is alot for a first timer. Were the olive eggers and Ameraucanas from your own birds? If not maybe it was the eggs and not the hen at all.

 

[MomGrowsFood]

Yes, they were from my own hens.