Moved broody hen, now won't sit on eggs, please help!

The chick in the broken egg looked pretty close to hatching, to me. It was dark feathered all over pretty much. Formed feet. Formed beak. There was some yolk.

I candled all the eggs and all the ones that looked dark inside with veining are in the 'bator. The R-Com 20 arrived today and got to the temp-humidity requirements in about half an hour. Wow, that thing is fast and efficient! So the eggs are in. Except for this one.

Can anyone tell me, when an egg pips, does it leak yolk, or is this a bad egg?

14455_egg.jpg
 
Dark inside the egg is okay at the stage they sound like they are at. I actually use a desk lamp over my brooder, so you should be able to get it up to a decent temperature with that. Opps just read where you got the incubator. Good luck, it doesn't sound like you have too long to wait.
 
Last edited:
A pipped egg should not leak yolk. When the chick starts pipping the egg with his beak, he may not have absorbed all the yolk quite yet, but that is at the abdomen part of the chick so shouldn't be coming out of a pip hole. I'd say bad egg. I sure hope you get some little ones out of this whole thing.
 
Well I got rid of that egg based on your advice and I put it in a ziploc baggie, sealed, and I cracked it open inside the baggie, just to see. It was just full of nasty goo. Good call!!

I hope some of the others are good ones. They are all in my incubator now.
 
Well, I candled all the eggs that I had (29) and eliminated a few for various reasons - cracks, blood rings, etc. The ones that seemed to be viable are in an RCom 20 digital 'bator. The thing is, they were in a styrofoam box for 2 days with a desk lamp on them and a damp towel in the bottom, and I am worried that they might have actually gotten too hot in there.

None of them are pipping yet, if they ever will. When I candled, I definitely saw veins in quite a few of them.

I don't know how long the hens were sitting on the eggs except to say that one had been on her eggs for at least a week. The friend I got them from is in the process of moving to Colorado and is often not at his house for days at a time. So he was not really keeping tabs on the hens at all. All I know is that from candling, some of them were completely dark with a pretty small air cell at one end, so I had hoped they were soon ready but maybe they died from all the changes - transportation, no more hen sitting, then put in styro box and maybe too hot.

Oh dear me...
 
Update on my eggs!! I have done a few candling sessions and have identified some more "dud" eggs. I have now narrowed down 29 eggs to about 12. I am still not sure of a couple of them. But, today, when I was candling this morning, some of the ones with the very defined line for the air cell showed movement! I could see something move against the air cell. Does that mean the chick is moving? I think it must mean that. I was so excited to see this! Does this give any indication at all of their age? The problem is I have no idea how long the hen was sitting on them, so no idea what their timing would be. I will just keep them in the 'bator and keep them turning because I don't know when to stop the turning since I don't know their age.

Any advice at this point is welcomed!
Claire
 
If you saw movement at the air cell, it may be getting ready to pip the cell. You probably have chicks developing at different stages since you had 2 broody hens. Of course, that makes things more difficult. If you saw veins in some, I'd think they are not near as far along. The ones that would be almost ready to hatch would be totally dark in most of the egg except for the air cell end. The baby would pip the air cell first before pipping the shell. While turning up to the time of hatch isn't recommended, I've heard where people were surprised by babies hatching early that were still being turned. I think I would keep the turner going. The problem is when one starts hatching, you may still have others that need to be turned. There is no great answer because I know you don't have another bator to put the ones that are hatching into.
 
Well, I do have another 'bator in the mail, it might arrive today because I paid extra for priority mailing. I got it from someone selling it here on BYC. It has a turner and a thermo/hygro also. I think it's an LG. Anyway, it will take some time to get up to temp & humidity but I can transfer after that, right? Even if it's not here, I think I will turn until I see a pip, and then stop.

Alternatively, I could set the eggs that look most ready into a cut egg carton cup (I would separate a carton into individual cups), and set the carton "cups" with the egg in it back in the 'bator, with the large end up. That way, when the turning plate moves, the carton cups won't turn - the plate will just move against the bottom of them. That way some eggs would be turning and some not.

Would that be a good idea?
 
I think the idea of just waiting until you get the other bator is the best way to go. I think I'd use that one for hatcher. The egg carton thing would probably work, but the turner is moving against the carton cells when a baby zips bothers me. I'm afraid he might end stuck somehow in the turner. Also the humidity needs to be higher for hatching and if you raise the humidity in #1 bator when you see a pip it may mess up the other eggs if they aren't as far along. This is definitely an experiment.
Believe me if there is something on the turner for the babies to get stuck on, they will. They seem to just find trouble or make their own if possible.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom