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[Knimmie]

Recently bought a hen who was laying on 7 eggs. They all seemed to be various stages, some looked very close to hatching, and some much earlier in development. We think the 2 that we’re much further along hatched and she ate the babies. We found the bits and pieces of the shells but no signs of babies. We moved the remaining eggs into an incubator. We have 1 that seems to be very close to hatching. We’ve left it alone, went to look at the eggs today and the very dark one has a crack. We’ve never hatched before so I’m not sure if it’s normal or if it’s a bad egg.

 

[Knimmie]

That kind of crack looks bad, did you candle the eggs at all? Candling will tell you if the eggs are growing at all. FYI if you really think she ate the chicks dont ever let her sit on eggs again.

I candled it a few days ago before there was a crack and it looked like it was almost ready to hatch. And yes I’m about 90% sure she ate the baby chicks, and yes that’s why I took the other eggs away from her!

 

[Ridgerunner]

That is not normal. How does it smell, pretty horrible like a rotten egg? My guess is that bacteria got inside it and started reproducing. The pressure built up and cracked the egg shell.

If it smells bad at all I'd very carefully get that egg outside of your house. With that leakage there hopefully won't won't be pressure inside, but sometimes they explode so try to wrap it in something so if it explodes you minimize the damage.

That leakage should be really high in bacteria. If it gets on the other eggs it will cause them to be infected.

I'm not sure of your circumstances but treat that like a stink bomb. Maybe bury it a foot deep or so in the ground where nothing can dig it up or put it in some type of airtight container until the trash is picked up.

 

[Wezdin]

That kind of crack looks bad, did you candle the eggs at all? Candling will tell you if the eggs are growing at all. FYI if you really think she ate the chicks dont ever let her sit on eggs again.

 

[Wezdin]

That is not a pip, Looks bad for the chick. @Texas Kiki might be able to give input.

 

[Knimmie]

That is not a pip, Looks bad for the chick. @Texas Kiki might be able to give input.

Its now wider and bigger.

 

[slordaz]

never seen anything like that but my chicks eggshells ya just about need a jack hammer to break em open. the concerning part is the seepage. How far along are they appearing to be. Tagging someone that's really good with this stuff
@Ridgerunner