Hatching some chicken eggs, maybe rotten.

[My15Ducks]

Hi,
I agreed to try to hatch some chicken eggs in my incubator. It was not my chicken, just to be clear. I’m just attempting to help the owner of these chickens. It is a bit of a mess.

The broody hen was sitting on the eggs until today and then she hatched one chick and left the nest probably because an egg had exploded and the nest was infested with mites

So I took the remaining 12 eggs and put them in the incubator. But they are sticky with rotten egg goo and everything stinks. I’m trying to candle them but the green eggs are impossible to see into. Of course I’m afraid an egg will explode in my incubator and ruin it.

Should I clean off the sticky eggs? I wiped them with a dry cloth but should I use water?

Any tips for candling green eggs?

 

[My15Ducks]

I also have the one chick in my incubator now because it is super weak, probably from the mites? We dabbed permithren on it with a cotton ball but I still see mites

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

Hi. Did any of the soiled eggs hatch? Does the owner have any clue if the broody started incubating the eggs all at the same time, or if it is a staggered hatch? I have Easter Eggers and Olive Eggers, and the dark green ones are definitely harder to see through. I solved the problem by purchasing an extremely bright tactical flashlight from Harbor Freight.

Also, did the weak chick survive? If the chick is still alive, continue to lightly dust until you see no more mites, then dust again in a week to kill any mites that hatch.

 

[My15Ducks]

Hi. Did any of the soiled eggs hatch? Does the owner have any clue if the broody started incubating the eggs all at the same time, or if it is a staggered hatch? I have Easter Eggers and Olive Eggers, and the dark green ones are definitely harder to see through. I solved the problem by purchasing an extremely bright tactical flashlight from Harbor Freight.

Also, did the weak chick survive? If the chick is still alive, continue to lightly dust until you see no more mites, then dust again in a week to kill any mites that hatch.

Unfortunately it was not a good outcome. The chick died after a few hours and none of the eggs hatched. I’m not sure if the chick was just too weak from losing blood, or maybe it was sickened from the exploding eggs?

No it wasn’t a staggered hatch - the owner had marked the eggs and removed new ones initially.

There were 3 brown eggs I was able to candle. 2 were clear and the other looked like it had died in the last few days. The green ones I couldn’t see inside at all! I guess I needed a much stronger flashlight. I left them in the incubator a few days but they all smelled horrible, and there were no pips, no peeping, nothing. It was frustrating not being able to candle them and guarantee that they were all dead but I’m pretty sure they were.

Could rotten egg gunk covering the eggs kill them all pretty fast? I was surprised there were no survivors. But I’m also wondering if the rooster wasn’t that fertile

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

I'm sorry that neither the chick nor any eggs made it, but kudos to you for trying to save them. Mites can quickly kill young chicks, so I will speculate the chick most likely succumbed to blood loss from the mite infestation. Hopefully the broody has been treated, since mite infestations can also kill broody hens.

I left them in the incubator a few days but they all smelled horrible, and there were no pips, no peeping, nothing. It was frustrating not being able to candle them and guarantee that they were all dead but I’m pretty sure they were.

In the future, if you want to know for sure if chicks have died inside their eggs, you can put questionable eggs into a plastic zip lock baggie, then crack the egg. (Of course, using this method will result in the chick being dead either way.) And in your specific case, I would put the egg(s) into Two ziploc baggies before cracking, since you highly suspected all eggs were rotten.

Could rotten egg gunk covering the eggs kill them all pretty fast?

I haven't found any scientific info stating how quickly bacteria from broken or exploded rotten eggs can kill remaining developing embryos/chicks. My personal experience through having had hundreds of broodies hatch chicks is that if an egg is heavily soiled from a broken (not rotten) egg within the first few days of incubation, no eggs have ever hatched. If eggs are soiled by a broken egg late in incubation (say 17-21 days), the chicks always hatched out healthy. In your first post, you said the broody left the nest after one chick hatched, and that a rotten egg had exploded in the nest. But do you or the hen's owner know how long the broody stayed in the nest after the egg exploded? If she left the nest soon afterwards, I will guess the exploded rotten egg had no effect on killing the chick or the other eggs.

 

[My15Ducks]

Hopefully the broody has been treated, since mite infestations can also kill broody hens.

Thank you for the detailed and thoughtful reply. Yes, the broody was treated for mites immediately. Last I heard she was doing well. I suggested she check the rest of the flock for mites too.

I thought about cracking open the eggs but I have to say I was too scared of how rotten they might be.

I don’t know exactly how long she left the nest but it was less than 24 hours. In the morning when the owner checked her, the broody hen was perched on the edge of the nest and that’s when she discovered the mites and exploded eggs.