Incubating question

[JenHarmon]

My hen went broody....i THOUGHT she only had a certain number of eggs cuz we labeled them and took out any extras the other laid. Mama is a mean one and liked to rip the skin off our hands and i guess we missed some cuz 2 days ago (what should have been day 14 of her sitting on them) she decided she was DONE. She sis not return. Ao i took the eggs and checked them....she had 8....at various stages of development.....i have only one incubator. They are all in there....some have a bit of fluid in the air cells....one of thise has a crack on the outside of the egg but the chick is still alive. Some of the air cells are bigger than they should be. So...my questions are.....am I doing this for nothing? Can they still hatch at various stages of development? Can the ones with fluid in the air cells hatch? Can the one with the crack survive?

 

[oregonkat]

Hopefully not for 'nothing'. It is not an ideal situation for sure, but, keep the faith and the humidity and temp. where it should be for your incubator and I would go middle of the road on the humidity. Keep it around 45 - 50% and then raising it a bit when you have an external pip. That way you hopefully wont drown or dry anybody. When you say 'fluid' in the air cell, do you mean that the air cell is 'slippery' when you candle the egg? In other words it moves around freely instead of being in one spot?
The egg with the crack is one you will have to watch very carefully. You can try to seal the crack with melted wax, or tape, but, it is quite likely that bacteria has entered the egg in which case there is a good chance that this one could go bad on you. Depending on how bad the crack is, you might want to pitch that one. Sorry! The risk of it blowing up and infecting all the others is relatively significant.

 

[nightowl223]

You can certainly try. Seal the crack(s) as best you can, with newskin, melted candle wax, melted crayon, or something similar. You will have to regularly do a sniff test when you open the incubator, to make sure that one with the crack(s) isn't rotting. As soon as you smell something off, carefully remove the cracked egg first, and carefully sniff it closer, to make sure that's the one that's bad - it probably will be.

Every time you open the incubator, make sure you have very clean hands - maybe even use the hand sanitizer before you handle eggs - to prevent adding any more bacteria to the equation. And have a spray bottle handy to spray (preferably sanitized/boiled) water over the eggs, to more quickly add any lost humidity back in.

 

[JenHarmon]

No the air cell itself doesnt move but it looks like some liquid enters the cell...it is weird....i have seen it on eggs that were duds but not with a chick still alive. I figure i will have to watch them all pretty closely since it is such a clustered mess. <sigh> I will remain hopeful and do my best. As for the cracked one....yep I worry about bacteria...even though it is still alive...I might "put it down" so the others have more of a chance.

 

[JenHarmon]

I am weird...I always sniff the incubator lol I am paranoid about bad eggs....and I do make sure my hands are clean...very clean. I will make a decision on the cracked egg tomorrow. Thanks y'all for the advice.

 

[nightowl223]

I am weird...I always sniff the incubator lol I am paranoid about bad eggs....and I do make sure my hands are clean...very clean. I will make a decision on the cracked egg tomorrow. Thanks y'all for the advice.

That's not called paranoid, it's called better safe than sorry! I've had that bad thing happen, and one NEVER wants that bad thing to happen.

 

[JenHarmon]

Update on this odd clutch of eggs lol....one chick hatced yesterday.....at day 18...got its head stuck in the egg turner but luckily we were able to get it out. The egg that is cracked...we decided to just check it daily and give it a chance....the chick is still alive and is now internally pipped and another egg is internally pipped. So no egg turner for now.

 

[JenHarmon]

And now it is externally pipped! Lil guy might beat the odds

 

[nightowl223]

And now it is externally pipped! Lil guy might beat the odds

Any more updates? I'd love to think the one we thought was a goner actually survived...