Lonely egg...not sure what to do

[KDrake]

So, we've got a broody hen. We just had a hen hatch out 5 chicks for us a couple weeks ago, so we didn't want a bunch more chicks. We picked out 3 eggs we wanted to hatch and gave them to her.
It's about day 9 or 10. One of the eggs got stepped on and broke and one isn't developing. So, now we are left with one egg. It's looking good inside, but it is covered with dry yolk from the broken egg.

Has anyone had good luck with just hatching 1 egg? I would hate to add more and have a staggered hatch.

Will the dried yolk on the good egg contaminate it?

Should we just start over?

Thanks in advance!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I would let it go and see. A single chick is fine for a hen to hatch. The yolk may or may not cause problems.

 

[Toshiko24]

Not sure if this will answer your question but:

I had a hen this October that made a secret nest and hatched out one baby chick. The baby was fine alone with its mom. He didn't get depressed or lonely. He got kind of bored sometimes but seemed to keep himself entertained quite well. He would do stuff like wait for his mom to duck her head down to peck the ground and he would run up and bite the feathers on her neck and just hold on so when she stood back up she would pick him up too so he was just hanging there like a piranha and she would walk off with him. Or he would jump on her back and ride her around the yard. He was a funny little guy. Bless that hen, she was so patient with him haha.

If your goal is just to get that hen unbroody the one egg should be fine. Its already half incubated anyway. The dried yolk shouldn't bother it but I would get a wet rag and clean the egg off anyway so nobody pecks at it trying to eat the dry yolk and breaks that one.

This is Cuddles and her winter baby Goopy.

Goopy always had to sit on Cuddles while she tried to take dirt baths....