Only one egg hatched under broody so far. Advice?

[KauaiChickenMama]

Hahaha! Yeah, I should name it “Lucky”, huh?

I’m still so puzzled as to my candling results last night with the 11 remaining hatching eggs all being watery inside.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Congratulations on your one little sweetie!
Sounds like the other ones never developed properly and even if they were fertile could just be the way USPS treats packages.
Shipped eggs are always a gamble. I’ve had 95% hatch rate and 0% hatch rate shipping eggs to Hawaii from the mainland. My most recent experience was one egg that hatched out of 36! I did keep him though and he ended up being a gorgeous boy, he is my avatar.

 

[Silkie Princess]

Are you going to buy more chicks for the broody?

 

[KauaiChickenMama]

Wow, LadysAndJane...
it looks like you have had both great success as well as great fails with ordering hatching eggs from the mainland. I guess I don’t feel so bad then as it looks like it is truly a gamble. How long did you let them rest for? And did you put them under a broody hen or use an incubator? How many times have you ordered hatching eggs? I appreciate your feedback, especially since you are from Hawaii as well. Which island are you on btw?

 

[KauaiChickenMama]

SilkiePrincess...
No, I’m not going to buy more eggs for my young broody hen as she just finished sitting on the nest for 23 days straight. I’m not sure if others have done that or if that is even possible...is it? Personally, I feel like the cycle of brooding eggs is already very hard on them. It’s time for her to recover now. Plus, she did have one chick hatch out of the twelve that were placed under her, so she now needs to tend to that little one.

 

[JubileeFarmer]

SilkiePrincess...
No, I’m not going to buy more eggs for my young broody hen as she just finished sitting on the nest for 23 days straight. I’m not sure if others have done that or if that is even possible...is it? Personally, I feel like the cycle of brooding eggs is already very hard on them. It’s time for her to recover now. Plus, she did have one chick hatch out of the twelve that were placed under her, so she now needs to tend to that little one.

When SilkiePrincess asked if you were going to get more chicks I don't think she meant eggs for the hen to sit on. Chicks don't always do well when raised alone so often when people end up with only one chick they will go to the local feed store, or wherever chicks are available, and get a couple of 1-3 day olds to keep the little one company. Being a single is especially hard when they reach the age where mom is no longer interested in protecting them and they have to negotiate their place in the flock alone.

 

[KauaiChickenMama]

JubileeFarmer...
Oh yeah, I see what you mean now. Others on this forum have commented that a mama raising one chick is fine and that adding baby chicks to a single hatched chick was more for incubator babies. Maybe others will be willing to comment more on this topic if they see this thread to give us more insight.

 

[NatJ]

I’m assuming they would all stink if I cracked them open...am I right? My husband was curious to see if there was any kind of development inside them at all, but I don’t know if I want to smell 11 rotten eggs!

If he wants to look, try it outdoors

You can also sniff each egg first-- if you smell it even through the shell, you may not want to open it. But if you cannot smell anything before you crack it, then it probably won't be too awful when you do crack it open.

 

[KauaiChickenMama]

If he wants to look, try it outdoors

You can also sniff each egg first-- if you smell it even through the shell, you may not want to open it. But if you cannot smell anything before you crack it, then it probably won't be too awful when you do crack it open.

Yeah, they don’t smell, so I think we’re pretty safe to crack them open when he comes home from work today. I’m curious to see the inside myself as they looked so watery when I candled them last night. Not even a regular raw egg is that watery. And wow, I’ve even heard that unhatched eggs could explode. Can you imagine how AWFUL that would be???

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Wow, LadysAndJane...
it looks like you have had both great success as well as great fails with ordering hatching eggs from the mainland. I guess I don’t feel so bad then as it looks like it is truly a gamble. How long did you let them rest for? And did you put them under a broody hen or use an incubator? How many times have you ordered hatching eggs? I appreciate your feedback, especially since you are from Hawaii as well. Which island are you on btw?

I’m on the Big Island!
I honestly don’t know how many times I’ve ordered eggs at this point! Only way to get certain breeds here as you know.
I want to say around a dozen times? The way the breeder packs the eggs of course is important. The freshness of the eggs when they are sent is also important. So we can’t blame the post office for all of it, but I’ve had eggs that could not have been more beautifully packed and sent express and all the air cells were loose or detached when they arrived here anyway. I tried different methods to incubate to see if that made any difference and there wasn’t any statistical difference as far as I could tell with my small numbers. I hatch my shipped eggs with an incubator up until now. I have tried both letting the eggs incubate on their sides and also incubating upright in cartons. You name it, I have probably tried it!
I generally let the eggs rest for 24 hours depending on the freshness of the eggs. May only let them rest for 12 if the eggs appear to be older based on the air cell size.
With the expensive shipped eggs I prefer to incubate as these eggs are by no means “normal” after being shipped and jostled around by their travel over here.
I use excellent incubators with well-controlled temperature and humidity and usually incubate dry due to the high humidity we have here in Hawaii. So all in all I feel blessed if I can get one shipped egg to hatch out of a batch at this point!