Jarred eggs, broody hen

[Aphrael]

I candled this morning, and couldn't detect and movement at all in the remaining eggs. None of them had even pipped. So I broke them open and had four perfectly formed, dead chicks, and two that were early quiters. We had two EE hatch, one austrolorp, and one I have no idea. It's a beautiful mahogany color, maybe another EE? It doesn't have a muff, though. So not sure. Glad we got the four at least. Seeing the ones that died in their shells does make you sad, though, doesn't it?

I'm glad you got some alive at least. It is sad to see the ones that didn't make it. I find it hard to open them up and look, but I make myself do it for now at least to try to get an idea if I may have done something wrong that I could remedy on the next round. Often, as bobbi-j said, they are just too weak to hatch and not necessarily anything the hatcher did wrong. But, I have a "gotta know" gene that won't let me not try to learn everything I possibly can about any quitters.

Congrats on the babies you did get and enjoy them! Sharing the fun with pics would be good too (hint hint). I LOVE seeing babies and I can't start gathering any of my own to hatch again till the end of this month. So I have to hatch vicariously through pics on here.

 

[gus2pp]

I'm glad you got some alive at least.  It is sad to see the ones that didn't make it.  I find it hard to open them up and look, but I make myself do it for now at least to try to get an idea if I may have done something wrong that I could remedy on the next round.  Often, as bobbi-j said, they are just too weak to hatch and not necessarily anything the hatcher did wrong.  But, I have a "gotta know" gene that won't let me not try to learn everything I possibly can about any quitters.  

Congrats on the babies you did get and enjoy them!  Sharing the fun with pics would be good too (hint hint).  I LOVE seeing babies and I can't start gathering any of my own to hatch again till the end of this month.  So I have to hatch vicariously through pics on here.  

That's hilarious! I would post pictures but all I have is my phone camera, and it won't let me post pictures for some reason. Stupid technology.

 

[gus2pp]

I'm glad you at least got four! For that very reason, I have quit breaking open the ones that didn't hatch. Sometimes they are just too weak or there is a deformity or something else that I can't see.

I probably shouldn't have looked. I couldn't help myself. You are wiser than I!

 

[bobbi-j]

There's nothing wrong with looking. It can be educational and sometimes give you answers - like if you see a deformed chick, or find out you had an early quitter or one that never started. (I know a lot of people would catch those with candling, but I don't candle my broodies' eggs. I prefer to just let them do their job.)

 

[gus2pp]

There's nothing wrong with looking. It can be educational and sometimes give you answers - like if you see a deformed chick, or find out you had an early quitter or one that never started. (I know a lot of people would catch those with candling, but I don't candle my broodies' eggs. I prefer to just let them do their job.) 

Interesting. I've had chickens for a while, but never had the set up to allow a broody to set, until this last time. It was fun, and I'll be doing it again I'm sure! (Addicting) So you don't candle. Have you ever had eggs explode? I tried smelling the eggs to detect bad ones -- I had read you can sniff out bad eggs after a while. I was never able to, and so resorted to candling. I had two eggs that were early quitters, and for whatever reason I couldn't tell when candling. They never exploded, and didn't smell bad at all. Just wondering how typical that is. I may not candle my next eggs, now that you say that.

 

[bobbi-j]

I've never had an egg explode under a broody. Last year, I did have some that exploded after I cleaned out the unhatched eggs, but in all my years of hatching eggs, that's my first experience with that. Usually the quitters or ones that never started to develop were just a runny mess when I've cracked them open. It's a personal choice to candle or not, but I know my broodies don't like to be messed with when they're setting, so I try to leave them alone as much as possible.

 

[Aphrael]

I usually candle the eggs under my broodies just once, a few days out from hatch time. I remove any clears and obvious quitters at that time. My two best cochin broodies are stubborn and they would keep on sitting on those eggs if I left them. I like it best when they co-brood with the d'uccles who like to go broody also. The d'uccles get impatient and once they have a chick or two, they'll often leave the remaining eggs to start showing the chicks around. If they are brooding together, then the d'uccles can go ahead and start teaching the chicks while the cochin finishes the hatch. Plus it is super cute seeing them all huddled up together, and to see them take turns on the eggs while the other goes out for a while.