4yearsofchickens
Songster
So I have a long story, with many mistakes. I know I made some mistakes, and already feel terrible. (TL;DR at bottom)
This started the first week of July. One of hens went broody, and after unsuccessful attempts to break it, on July 17 I decided to get 6 fertile eggs from a friend and let her set (I have no rooster). Lo and behold, three days after getting the eggs, she gives up her motherly passions (also she breaks an eggs at this point). I caught this before the eggs got too cold, and stuck them in a makeshift incubator (more on that later), not expecting anything to happen.
I candled once a week and thought I wasn't seeing any development (now I think my flashlight just wasn't bright enough).
The hen had cracked 1 of the eggs when she had been sitting on them and that one started to ooze brown matter out of the cracks, so I thought since they all looked the same to me when I candled them that they were all rotten inside. I took them outside to throw them away. I threw the rotten one first and it was just black inside and disgusting, so I threw the rest. Three bounced and one broke. The one that broke had a developing chick inside. I felt terrible, and took the other three back to the incubator.
Apparently one of the eggs cracked when I threw it, although at the time I couldn't see it. Now this egg has blood oozing out of the cracks...
TL;DR
I thought the eggs were rotten, so threw them out, they weren't rotten. Now one has blood oozing out of a crack, with a week and a half to hatch date, what do I do?
Mistakes:
Letting a new hen set when I was super busy.
Not candling well.
Throwing all the eggs at once instead of one at a time.
Trying to use a makeshift incubator (a heat lamp over a metal bucket, turning eggs as often as possible, and adding humidity in the form of paper towels)
I'll try to get pics asap
This started the first week of July. One of hens went broody, and after unsuccessful attempts to break it, on July 17 I decided to get 6 fertile eggs from a friend and let her set (I have no rooster). Lo and behold, three days after getting the eggs, she gives up her motherly passions (also she breaks an eggs at this point). I caught this before the eggs got too cold, and stuck them in a makeshift incubator (more on that later), not expecting anything to happen.
I candled once a week and thought I wasn't seeing any development (now I think my flashlight just wasn't bright enough).
The hen had cracked 1 of the eggs when she had been sitting on them and that one started to ooze brown matter out of the cracks, so I thought since they all looked the same to me when I candled them that they were all rotten inside. I took them outside to throw them away. I threw the rotten one first and it was just black inside and disgusting, so I threw the rest. Three bounced and one broke. The one that broke had a developing chick inside. I felt terrible, and took the other three back to the incubator.
Apparently one of the eggs cracked when I threw it, although at the time I couldn't see it. Now this egg has blood oozing out of the cracks...
TL;DR
I thought the eggs were rotten, so threw them out, they weren't rotten. Now one has blood oozing out of a crack, with a week and a half to hatch date, what do I do?
Mistakes:
Letting a new hen set when I was super busy.
Not candling well.
Throwing all the eggs at once instead of one at a time.
Trying to use a makeshift incubator (a heat lamp over a metal bucket, turning eggs as often as possible, and adding humidity in the form of paper towels)
I'll try to get pics asap
I can't imagine doing wet paper towels and the like as you said!
