Hello, I was wondering if some one would help us out! we had a couple of hens laying on a 1 &1/2 or so eggs. while they were on them after a while they started to stink. then they really stunk. two hatched from that batch, there doing good. but the hens kinda ab banded the eggs after a few days. we took the rest of the eggs out of the hen house and put them in a bater. one hatched and put it in with the hen and the other two little ones. did fine for a few days but it didn't make it. another one hatched yesterday and didn't make it threw the night. there were a few eggs we got rid of from that batch that exploited when we barred them. was wondering if the eggs that exploited when the hens were on them. is what's causing them not to make it? should we get rid of the 6-8 eggs left from that batch or not?
If you can candle the eggs to see if they have a chick inside. sounds like possibly the hens were all laying in the nest during incubation and the chicks will be due at different times. Hard to say what is causing the eggs to rot. If their is some bacteria in the nest from past broken eggs that might be the cause. A non fertile egg, if not invaded by bacteria, will still look like a fresh egg, even after 21 days of incubation! Bacteria can also kill newly hatched chicks, which may explain why they died.
Quote:Yes if rotten eggs exploded that could cause a bacterial infection and hurt the rest of the eggs. I'd candle, check for movement and discard the bad eggs. I try to seperate broody hens so that I can give them a full set of eggs all on one day so they all hatch together, and so other hens can't continue to lay in the nest.