Help! I cracked a hatching egg. Now what?

[Chickin Out]

I've used scotch tape before and it worked well. Wax is also regularly used by others with good results.

Be careful with the staggered hatch under the hen like that, though. Do you have an incubator to finish off the eggs you're adding once the hen abandons the unhatched ones to take care of the chick(s) she's hatched? She will, as soon as the chicks need food and water.

No. I find hens to work better than incubators. I just put the food and water right next to her. The chicks run out to eat and drink, then right back under Mom. I'm only giving her a handful of eggs, so she should be done within a week or so.
Wax does sound like a good option. Should I moisten the egg / membrane a little bit now before sealing since it's been several hours since the crack?

 

[Chickin Out]

I have an egg cracked since day one, on day ten with candle wax. So far so good. If it's later in incubation, I would use nail polish-- easy to control, durable, and more likely to be pippable through. Early incubation I'd worry about it leeching into the egg and stick with wax. The person I saw recommend nail polish had several pics of chicks succefuly hatching out of eggs patched with it.

There's a guide in linked in the sticky that suggests white glue, it seems like it would work, be controllable, nontoxic. I would not use superglue, too easy to make things worse if your application isn't perfect and that stuff off gasses like mad.

yes, I had concerns about toxicity with super glue, likewise with nail polish. I'm thinking that the wax sounds the safest. I wonder if beeswax would work? But I guess I'll stick with candle wax.
I will post a picture here shortly. Do I need to moisten the egg now? Before sealing?

 

[Kiraeh]

Whups, beeswax is what mine is, I have a big bag of beeswax tealights which was super easy to use. I think I'd take beeswax over others not just because it may have some antibacterial properties but also its quite hard. My eggs are sitting on hardware cloth and get turned by hand so I'd worry about a softer wax getting mushy and making a mess. But anything unscented would probably be fine. I didn't do anything to the egg beforehand. I think it was cracked for about 12hr before I noticed mine.

 

[Chickin Out]

Okay, so the weirdest thing has happened. I just went in and checked on the eggs to take a photo of the cracked egg. Now I can't find the crack at all. Both of the eggs looked perfect. This is especially odd because it is not just a plain old straight crack, but it was the kind that makes a little round indentation. !!!??!!!

 

[HENS-and-MARES]

Use wax or clear nail polish! Make sure to get all the cracks! That is where I failed to save a cracked egg!

 

[HENS-and-MARES]

Feel around the egg GENTLY!
just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not there.

 

[Chickin Out]

Feel around the egg GENTLY!
just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not there.

Yes, I did... still couldn't find it. Really odd. Could try candling again I guess.

 

[UThobbyfarmer]

I would never trust myself to catch a crack with my naked eye and I'm a reasonably experienced hatcher. You need to candle the eggs. A good flashlight will light cracks up like the 4th of July. Whatever you're going to do do it quickly then leave that poor Mama alone. Messing with her just improves the odds of the hatch going pear shaped.

 

[Juju2773]

How well would cyanoacrylate, also known as super glue, work as a sealer?

Hi, I had a bad crack happen on one of my incubator eggs and like yours, the membrane was still intact. I quickly used some of my sons elmers glue. Candle it because there were a lot of long running cracks not visible by eye on mine. You can see them all that way. The glue is non toxic and I applied several layers, allowing it to dry in between layers. It worked.

 

[Chickin Out]

Update:

So, after candling I could still find no cracks. I wonder what happened. It appears there is egg on my face hahaha.
but I do thank everyone for their replies because I will know what to do if this ever happens again. And anyone reading this will also know what to do.
The first of the two eggs hatched and is a healthy little chick. The second egg is now peeping and I expect to hatch in a day or so.
I candled the remaining two as well just in case I had mixed up the eggs, but I don't think so because they looked different. I'm not really sure what happened as I was sure I saw a crack there. Cue twilight zone music.