I need someone to hold my hand, egg exploded under broody hen!

[AinaWGSD]

Today was day 18 for my broody and when we pulled the eggs inside to candle we noticed one was missing. And the whole nest reeked of rotten egg. At some point in the last week, one of the eggs broke and got all over the other eggs

I cleaned the remaining eggs up a bit with just plain warm water and wiped them dry before we candled. Two of the eggs were clearly quitters, and we pulled those out. Two of the eggs had vigorous movement (of course, just about the last two we candled, I was really starting to loose hope). And the remaining 5 eggs all look appropriately developed for day 18 but we could not see any movement that we were sure of.

We dumped all of the old nesting material and replaced it, but we weren't really able to do anything to clean up the hen and she does have some grossness stuck to her belly. Now I guess we get to sit on pins and needles until Wednesday to see if this unfortunate turn of events has ruined the hatch.

It wasn't even the egg I would have expected to explode either. When we candled at day 11, there was one that I was pretty sure had probably quit, but not sure enough to pull it. That one was one of the two that we pulled tonight. The egg that broke was one that we had seen movement in last week, and the chick appeared to be normally formed.

I guess I just need someone to tell me that it'll [probably] be ok. I know there's not much else we could do now to change the outcome. But they were all developing so nicely, especially for shipped eggs. And me being due any day now myself means my hormones are not helping matters any!

 

[Pyxis]

Well, if it makes you feel any better, and I hope it does, I had an egg explode under my broody and I wasn't even aware of it till day 18 when I pulled two eggs out from under her to lockdown and raise on my own. All the eggs had egg and eggshell stuck to them and I never even got to clean the gunk off of the eggs I left under her, since I didn't realize the eggs were gunky until the next morning and I didn't want to risk her getting off the nest while they were hatching to clean them. They all hatched, every single one, and a week and half later, all six are healthy and well. I hope you have the same result!

 

[sumi]

I've never had this happen to me and hopefully never will! (touching wood here) But best of luck, with the hatch and your baby. Hope all goes well for you and you get some chicks

 

[cochins1088]

I had this happen, I put the eggs in my incubater temporarily while I gve the hen a bath as weel as what you did (clean the eggs and nest and ect..) So I did get my hen clean, and I got all but one to hatch.

 

[AinaWGSD]

They hatched!

When I got home tonight my husband informed me that we had 6 little cheeping chicks. 2 wyandottes, 3 orpingtons, and one lone light sussex. She's still sitting on one more wyandotte egg that hasn't pipped yet. But technically these eggs weren't due until tomorrow anyway, so there's still hope it'll hatch tonight or tomorrow. Thanks to everyone who shared their yucky egg success stories, you really helped put my mind at ease.

 

[barnyardmommy]

Congratulations on your baby chicks. Just goes to show you they are some tuff little critters.

 

[sumi]

Congrats! I'm glad it worked out well for you.

 

[Nancy W Davis]

We just had this happen to us last night. We have had 2 mommas give us chicks without incidence. Once last summer and we have 10 chicks now 7 weeks old. This hen wants to be a mom so bad it doesn't matter what happens: the boss-hen kicked her off her nest more than twice; she went to the wrong nest after taking a short break; and one exploded. I had picked the warmest 4 eggs to put under her when she went to her old nest- now we dont know if she is just brooding over an empty nest...........

what do we do?