Help! Broody left pipping chick behind-covered with white things?

[Sara L]

Help! We had a broody set a clutch at my folk's house without us figuring it out until she was in lockdown. She left the nest late today with 5 fluffy chicks and still had about 8 eggs left in the nest. I wasn't able to get there until this evening and checked on the eggs, which were cold to the touch. I gathered them up to take inside to egg-topsy and some of them were peeping. I opened all of them from the fat end slowly: a few were rotten, one infertile, and two had already died in the shell. There was one that had already pipped and I just widened the pipped area. A second chick had just barely pipped the outer shell and a third was only internally pipped. Picture below has chicks 1, 2, and 3 going clockwise from the bottom.

The one that had already pipped is covered with little white things; I thought they were bugs at first but they don't have legs and aren't moving. Is it possible that they are ant eggs? I am creeped out by the thought but I'm not sure what the heck these are. I don't know how long it was pipped and open to the elements. The other two chicks don't have any of the white things on them, which is why I think it's something external versus from inside the egg. I was able to get all three chicks-in-shell back to my house and into an incubator. I put vaseline on the exposed membrane but it looks like they still have some blood vessels to absorb. I tried to get as much of the little white things off the chick as I could, but am having trouble because I don't know how far inside they go and don't want to disturb the membrane more.

Has anyone seen anything like this and do you have any recommendations??

 

[Rooster G]

Lice eggs?

 

[Jayecookie]

that's weird but you definitely want to take them off. They don't belong there better for all. If you have the time be very careful and pick them off with tweezers or something

 

[Sara L]

They have to be eggs of some sort. Google image search of bug eggs makes me think fly eggs? I'm worried if they are fly eggs they will hatch today - online said they could hatch in 8-24 hours. I think I got most of them off with tweezers and q-tips last night. Chick was not happy about the whole thing so I did it in two sessions so he could warm back up in the incubator. While I was doing the first session chick #3 got out of his shell, tummy was still closing up a bit but yolk looked absorbed.

All three chicks are out this morning; chick #2 had to have a little help breaking more eggshell off because membrane was sticking a little but all blood had been absorbed. Chick #1 (with the eggs) was fluffed up and out of his cup this morning, I couldn't see any more on his body but I don't know if they are off or just hidden by fluff. He was not appreciative of my trying to go through his fluff looking. He did have some in his nose and really did not like being held still to get those out with a toothpick. I think I got about 5 out of his nose. I really hope I got them all.

Chicks should be fluffed up enough after work that I can hopefully slip them back under the broody mom tonight after dark.

 

[fightingbunny]

Wow, that is unnerving!

 

[Sara L]

Update on the chicks: They are all fluffy and no sign of the eggs or bug larva on any of the chicks. I brought them back to my folk's house and was going to stuff them under the broody but she had been wandering the yard and nested for the night under the roses with the first 5 babies. Mom convinced me to take the chicks back to my house and brood them until feathery and then bring them back to join the flock. We aren't certain how good a mom this broody is - the last two were terrible and one lost all her chicks one by one.

I'm pretty sure the two black chicks are half Black Jersey Giant (our lead rooster Onyx is a gorgeous Black Jersey Giant), dunno which hens laid the eggs though. They both seem to be single comb. The brown chick has extra toes and fluff along the outside of the legs. The extra toes could be from our rooster King, or it's possible the hen who laid the egg was one of King's daughters. The brown chick seems like it is going to have a wide comb, I think it's called a walnut comb? Both King and the third rooster (Blue Laced Red Wyandotte) have the walnut combs.

 

[oregonkat]

Those look to me like fly eggs. There was another poster on here just the other day who had an infestation take over her incubator and they had come in on the eggs. I do not understand how they would have got inside though. @azygous, do you have any ideas about what this could have been? Are they fly eggs do you think.
Anyway, I would disinfect your bator really well to make sure you kill off whatever this was. Good Luck with the babies, they are beautiful! I wish my BLRW had looked like yours, mine were either yellow or grey

 

[oregonkat]

Ugh, never mind on the incubator, I just re read the beginning of the thread. Eggs under broody not incubator. Sorry !

 

[azygous]

To be honest, I had never heard of this phenomenon. So I called up my good friend Mr Google and we discovered that if a hen has round worms, they can migrate up the oviduct from the cloaca and get into the eggs. It's not a common occurrence, but it happens.

What this means for the baby chicks that have just hatched, I can't tell you. But I would definitely be watchful for signs of lethargy and failure to thrive and have their poop tested for worm eggs. Or have the fecal float test performed on their poop regardless. I would have the adult chickens poop tested for sure. You may want to worm them.

 

[oregonkat]

To be honest, I had never heard of this phenomenon. So I called up my good friend Mr Google and we discovered that if a hen has round worms, they can migrate up the oviduct from the cloaca and get into the eggs. It's not a common occurrence, but it happens.

What this means for the baby chicks that have just hatched, I can't tell you. But I would definitely be watchful for signs of lethargy and failure to thrive and have their poop tested for worm eggs. Or have the fecal float test performed on their poop regardless. I would have the adult chickens poop tested for sure. You may want to worm them.

Yes, a worm makes much more sense. Thank you for this, it is one for the note book for future reference.