Help! Is my egg dead?

CluckYeah8908

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I have a mother hen who was laying on 14 eggs. 12 have hatched successfully and I have 2 who haven’t even pipped. I’ve been candling the eggs ever since I discovered my hen being broody. I don’t know exactly when the eggs were laid but everyone hatched about 2 days ago and these 2 have not. I Know at least one of the eggs had life within the last week. I am candling both today and one is completely pitch black inside. No light at all! The other there is a good amount of light and no movement can be found. Should I keep them under the momma hen or are they gonners?
 
If you candle with a good light in a very dark place you should be able to see the very edges of the membranes inside have veins or you should be able to see movement. If you try this and see no veins or movement, I would try the float test. Fill a bowl wih water as close to 99 degrees as possible, let it settle, then place the eggs one at a time carefully into the bowl. Let it settle then watch closely for movement. Live eggs will start to rock in the water within a few seconds. Don't leave an egg in water for more than a minute. Make sure there are definitely no holes or pips in the shell before doing this!

If you STILL see no signs of life, I would carefully chip away a small piece of shell from over the air cell. Try to see inside. If you gently prod the top of the membrane covered chick with your finger or a cotton bud and it doesn't move it is very likely dead.

In this case, personally, I would peel off the remaining shell over the air cell then moisten the membrane gently with coconut oil or another oil and there will be red veins visible in the membrane in a live chick. If there are no veins it is dead, unfortunately.

Others might have different opinions on how much this here intervene but this is what I would personally do and have done with eggs before.

I have to say that it is likely these eggs are not viable, however.
 
Also I would not leave the eggs with the mother more than two days after the others have hatched because she needs to get up to look after the chicks by the third day. So if the last chick hatched, say on a Monday, I would test and open the remaining egs on thursday. Hope that makes sense.
 
Also I would not leave the eggs with the mother more than two days after the others have hatched because she needs to get up to look after the chicks by the third day. So if the last chick hatched, say on a Monday, I would test and open the remaining egs on thursday. Hope that makes sense.

The mother and babies are inside in a large dog crate with food and water. Babies are well taken care of. I candled the eggs in complete darkness and I can’t even see the air pocket. I mean this egg is total darkness. If there is any movement I can’t see it. It had an air pocket last time I candled it. I can’t find anything on the web about it. The other one I can definitely see the air pocket but I don’t see movement. I did try the water test and couldn’t get either of them to move.
 
The one that is now totally dark may have internally pipped and the chick moved into the air cell. If I were in your position I would open up the end of the shell on that one (the wider end that used to have the air cell).

Does the second egg look like this pic of an egg stage living egg?
 

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The one that is now totally dark may have internally pipped and the chick moved into the air cell. If I were in your position I would open up the end of the shell on that one (the wider end that used to have the air cell).

Does the second egg look like this pic of an egg stage living egg?

These are both of the eggs. So I should open the dark egg?
 

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Hmm. Do you have an incubator? The first egg is strangely dark like you said. The second one looks like I could be alive. Naturally a broody hen will start getting up to eat and drink and poop with the newborns, leaving any leftover eggs to get cold or trampled, after two or three days maximum after the last chick hatches. So it is very likely the hen will not sit on the eggs much longer.

Is it possible that these eggs could have been added to the nest later than the others?

I'm very much pro-assisting so I would be opening those shells! If you have an incubator you can apply oil to the membranes and assist the hatch if the chicks' are alive.
 
Hmm. Do you have an incubator? The first egg is strangely dark like you said. The second one looks like I could be alive. Naturally a broody hen will start getting up to eat and drink and poop with the newborns, leaving any leftover eggs to get cold or trampled, after two or three days maximum after the last chick hatches. So it is very likely the hen will not sit on the eggs much longer.

Is it possible that these eggs could have been added to the nest later than the others?

I'm very much pro-assisting so I would be opening those shells! If you have an incubator you can apply oil to the membranes and assist the hatch if the chicks' are alive.

These eggs are from all different chickens I’m sure. I’ve been super busy lately and didn’t gather eggs in about a month, I went out to just break them all but I saw one of my hens was nesting so i checked under her and she was laying on 18 eggs! I checked every single one of them and found 14 had life in them, so I took everyone inside and made her a nice nest. Our nesting boxes are above the ground and I didn’t want them hatching and falling out the nest. I have a separate coop I bought waiting for them when it gets warmer outside so they can all be together and safe from the other chickens. So I’m really not sure when the eggs were laid. 6 hatched on April 7th and the other 6 hatched on April 8th. I unfortunately do not have an incubator. I wasn’t planning on having babies but Miss Lucille decided she wanted to be a mom.
 
It is possible then that these two eggs were laid after Lucille starting brooding because broodies love to take other hens eggs and sit on them too! The second egg looks very late stage if it is still alive, close to hatching. If Lucille is still sitting down all day and the chicks are eating and drinking with her you could try leaving that egg a bit longer under her.

The darker one I would open.
 
It is possible then that these two eggs were laid after Lucille starting brooding because broodies love to take other hens eggs and sit on them too! The second egg looks very late stage if it is still alive, close to hatching. If Lucille is still sitting down all day and the chicks are eating and drinking with her you could try leaving that egg a bit longer under her.

The darker one I would open.

Alright, I cracked open a little bit of the egg (just a tiny hole) and this came out and it doesn’t smell pretty! I’m pretty sure it has passed away :(
 

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